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Wednesday, December 03, 2008

In less than a week, all will be revealed: to paraphrase the Great Dickens, we would know for certain whether we are headed straight for heaven or going direct the other way. By most estimates- and here, I am not talking of ‘surveys’ published by various media houses (these, I shall deal with separately)- it is a tough call; even more to the point, we’re told that Independents, the BSP & the CPI would, in all probability, play a decisive role in the formation of Chhattisgarh’s third government. Not surprisingly, both major parties- the ruling BJP as well as the Congress- are already wooing them in earnest.

Even now- more than ten days after the second round of polling ended- it is difficult to decipher the precise vectors that led more than 70% of the state’s electorate to cast its votes- a significantly higher figure than in any of the other five election-going states (Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir). Could this extraordinary polling percentage be only due to (a) an increase in the number of polling booths in every constituency, which made it easier for people to go and vote & (b) heightened awareness among voters thanks to an intensive media campaign, as many have surmised; or- and this is the really uncertain variable with the potential of upsetting all existing political calculations- were there other Issues- perhaps even an overriding Issue to beat all other issues- at play in the electorate’s mind? If so, what might they- it- be?

The two dominant versions currently on offer reflect, more than anything else, wishful thinking on the part of both major political parties: the BJP would have us believe that people went to the booths singing “Chaaur Waale Baba ki Jai” (Long Live the Rice-waale Baba) in an obvious reference to what they perceive to be the immense popularity of Dr. Raman Singh’s Rs. 3 per kilo rice scheme launched six months before the elections. The Congress on the other hand seems to draw comfort from the basic tenet of classical psephology: that a high voter turnout is indicative of a strong anti-incumbency undercurrent.

The BJP’s claim can be disputed for a variety of reasons. One, “chaaur waale baba”- a title the BJP claims the people of the state have lovingly bestowed on Dr. Raman Singh- isn’t really something any Chhattisgarhiya would say for the simple reason that “waale” is as alien to the Chhattisgarhi dialect as Dr. Singh’s Uttar Pradeshi- Pratapgarhiya- roots. Two, as I have already discussed in an earlier post, this scheme isn’t as big a success as it has been made out to be. The way it works, a minuscule number of BPL (below poverty line) families in every village are given 35 kilos of rice every month at the rate of Rs. 3 per kilo. While this sounds very nice on paper, the fact is that since most Chhattisgarhi households are exclusively rice eaters, 35 kilos of rice would last a family of four barely ten days (and here I am assuming that they’re all frugal in their dietary habits). To meet their requirements for the remaining twenty days, they’re compelled to buy rice at prevalent market rates. Now, this is where the Scheme behind the scheme kicks in: the only rice available is in the black market, and it is sold at not less than Rs. 16 per kilo. In the ultimate cost-benefit analysis, therefore, the only true beneficiary is the blackmarketeer, who is inevitably a loyal party worker of the BJP. Moreover, even if one were to assume that 35 kilos is sufficient for every family, there is no denying the fact that only one in fifty families actually ‘benefits’ from this scheme; even so, most of these families, given the skewed manner in which BPL cards are allotted, aren’t really poor. In the many places that we campaigned, I couldn’t help noticing that the dominant complaint was that while the well-to-do families- those with a close relationship with the village Sarpanch, for instance- are getting their quota of 35 kilos of rice, the really deserving- and needy- ones simply aren’t. This, in my opinion, has led to even more discontent.

Maybe what I’ve just said above is mere conjecture; maybe Dr. Singh’s Rice Scheme has really worked wonders for the BJP. But as far as one could tell from what one saw- and heard- during the campaign, there were no visible signs of it. If indeed Dr. Raman Singh has metamorphosed into a larger-than-life cult figure- the hugely popular ‘chaaur waale baba’, as the BJP & a large section of the state’s media would have us believe- then surely it would only be reasonable to assume that people by the tens of thousands would be rushing from near and far to catch a glimpse of him, to hear him speak, maybe even to touch him in the hope of getting healed. Yet, for all that, the attendance at his preannounced public meetings were at best, a damp squib, not crossing fifteen hundred anywhere even when the BJP’s campaign-planners were careful to hold them at market places on weekly market days.

This phenomenon wasn’t confined to Dr. Singh: his party’s prime ministerial candidate and key campaigner, Mr. Lal Krishna Advani, left Raipur visibly perturbed when his rallies failed to draw crowds. (I’m reliably told that not more than seven hundred persons were present at his Katora Talab meeting very near where I live, and he had to wait for more than two hours before there was sufficient crowd for him to address at Jagdalpur.) The fate of Mr. Narendra Modi, whose feat Dr. Raman Singh hopes to no doubt emulate, was no different. His meeting at Kanker (north Bastar) wasn’t exactly what he- or for that matter anyone- expected.

Could it, therefore, be that all the mass-outpourings of adulation for our beloved ‘chaaur waale baba’ was totally undetectable to the average human eye (except perhaps those of Navbharat reporters)? If so, why? Were the people, for instance, afraid- nay, terrified- of showing their affection for him and his wonderful government? What could be the reason for this Deafening Quiet?

There is sadly only one answer to this: Dr. Raman Singh- Chhattisgarh’s ‘chaaur waale baba’- is purely a Creation of the Media. I can’t remember a time when the media- or a large section of it anyway- was so totally one-sided. No, actually I can: in 2004, right before the last Lok Sabha election, under remarkably similar circumstances. Infact I remember I’ve written something about it already on this Blog; so, what I say here might tend to be repetitive. Let me tell you a tale, then. Sometime back, Mr. Kanak Tiwari, a leading lawyer of the High Court and a widely respected columnist, submitted his weekly article to Mr. Sunil Maheshwari, the proprietor of a local eveninger who I like to think of as the self-appointed permanent advisor-in-chief to the chief minister irrespective of who the latter may be. When he discovered that his article had not been published, he quite reasonably asked Mr. Maheshwari why. The answer he got, he says, irrevocably shook his faith in the ‘sanctity of the media’: he was told pointblank that his article could not be published because it was apparently too critical of the chief minister. ‘Chhattisgarh’, Mr. Maheshwari’s publication created from money robbed from ‘Deshbandhu’ (a highly respected newspaper he worked for earlier, and milked for all it was worth), is small potatoes compared to Navbharat, once the biggest circulated newspaper of the state. For a princely sum of money- running no doubt into several crores of rupees- the BJP quite simply transformed it into its principal mouthpiece. Infact so blatant was this newspaper in its one-sided coverage of the campaign that many old-timers, who admired it for its neutral, hands-on reportage, decided to stop subscribing to it altogether.

The aforementioned publications thankfully reflect the ‘in extemis’ cases. As for the rest of the media (not all but most anyway), our candidates felt it was impossible to get them to write anything about their campaigns without paying for it. Given the fact that we’re not in power & more to the point, we- as a party- don’t have the crores it requires to be written about favorably in the press, it was, therefore, only natural to see a distinctively pro-BJP bias in the media coverage of the election in Chhattisgarh. How much has this worked to the BJP’s advantage- and by implication, to our disadvantage- would depend on whether the electorate’s opinion is purely media-determined (in which case, we are clearly the losers in the media game) or whether the electorate does infact realize that the media’s role is first and foremost to report on what is objectively, and that if- and when- it fails to do so, it loses its moral credibility.

Put simply, the media in Chhattisgarh, acting in collusion with the BJP, made Dr. Raman Singh & his government into something that he clearly was not: Chaaur Waale Baba. The Question is whether the people have accepted this media-created Image of his, and made it their own? Agreed, the Congress-led Opposition didn’t do its damndest best to put this government in the dock, as it jolly well should have done during the past five years, but that doesn’t mean that the Sins of this Regime should be forgotten & forgiven merely because nobody is shouting about them from the rooftops. I firmly believe that an Ineffective Opposition can be no justification for the continued existence of a Failed Government: the advantages of Democracy (in which each citizen has a voice) far outweigh the many ills of parliamentary procedure (where only select & at times manageable elected representatives have any say). Equally firmly, I also believe that this belief is not mine alone: it is shared by millions of others in the state.

*

The fact of the matter is that the BJP (unlike the Media) had realized long ago that it was facing an anti-incumbency wave: why else would it deny party tickets to eighteen of its sitting MLAs? Even more obviously, the chief minister himself shifted constituency, choosing not to contest from Dongargaon, which he has been representing these past five years! That subsequently this very obvious fact should be forgotten- and contrary claims of a massive pro-incumbency wave asserted not just by the demagogues of the party but also echoed in large sections of the media- is in itself peculiar, to say the least. This brings me to my next point. The incumbency factor- whether pro or anti- was at play at two levels: at the state level (which the ruling party, much of the administration as well as the media are if not denying, then at least not talking about); and also, at the local level, where people were judging the performance of those they had previously elected.

Propaganda of the kind we witnessed in Chhattisgarh can only dampen anti-incumbency at the state level; it does precious little as far as the local level is concerned, where the electorate is more likely to have first-hand knowledge of ground realities. Come to think of it, the more we approach the grassroots, the less effective propaganda as a campaign-mechanism becomes. So, yes, while last two month’s Media blitzkrieg might have helped salvage Dr. Raman Singh’s reputation as a non-starter non-performer by presenting him instead as an inoffensive Gentleman-ruler- this incidentally is Dr. Singh’s preferred public persona- it has, in my opinion, done little to change the perception of elected-representatives & also the various party candidates before their constituents; and, more to the point, it is precisely this first-hand knowledge of candidates, which is clearly not subject to media-influences, that would play the paramount role in determining which way a voter ultimately votes.

This is why the choice of party candidates becomes all-important. As a Congressman, I was perplexed (along with several of my party persons, I should think) about the time- and the manner- it took to decide on our party’s ninety candidates. I believe we spend in all fifty days- and nights- in endless rounds of meetings in Delhi before a list could be finalized: this would imply an average of fifteen hours of deliberations per candidate selected. Not only that, during all this time, the entire party- all of the state leaders with hundreds of followers in tow, at least twenty ticket-aspirants per constituency, each with at least a dozen supporters (taking the total into thousands of key party workers from all over Chhattisgarh)- had shifted bag & baggage to Delhi, leaving the field totally empty for more than two months just before the election. Typically enough, tickets were announced hours before the deadlines. But in retrospect, I think we- and by we, I mean the party- didn’t do such a bad job after all.

The Goof-up percentage was about 10%, which isn’t bad at all by our standards. Alright, the NCP alliance was totally uncalled for, especially in the two seats we left for them in Ambikapur division (Manendragarh, Samri), as I’m sure the results would no doubt reveal. Also, we could’ve done a whole lot better in North Bastar, where our candidates are, in all likelihood, destined to slip to third place in at least two otherwise totally winnable constituencies (Kanker, Bhanupratappur): in one, we gave the ticket to someone who has repeatedly lost four elections since 1990; and in the other, we gave to someone totally new. Consequently, we now face the prospect of Congress-rebels (rather than official Congress candidates) taking on the BJP directly.

However, at most other places, we were successful in getting the rebels to withdraw in favor of official party candidates, which in itself is no mean achievement. And while on the subject of rebels, let me point out that this is possibly for the first time that we have as many- if not more- BJP-rebels contesting: most curiously, in one constituency, the RSS fielded its candidate against the BJP’s nominee (Vaishali). This brings me to yet another ‘misperception’ created by the state media in collusion with the BJP: that of total disunity in the Congress. Infact, the reverse is true. Given that it is widely believed that Mr. Vidya Charan Shukla is my father’s bête-noire, it is highly creditable for the two to have met not once, but four times, in the duration of less than two weeks to iron out their differences, and arrive at a broad mutual understanding to work together towards bringing the party back to power in the state.

Nothing of the sort can be said of the BJP, where every leader of some stature- Mr. Tarachand Sahu, Mr. Shiv Pratap Singh, Mr. Ramesh Bais, Mr. Nand Kumar Sai, to name only four sitting BJP MPs- are openly opposing what they rightfully perceive as the intra-party Tyranny of Dr. Raman Singh as he has systematically destroyed all state-level leadership not his own in an attempt to manufacture his hegemony. In the case of Mr. Sahu, he actually personally protested at a police station demanding the arrest of BJP workers loyal to Mr. PP Pandey, the incumbent Speaker & BJP candidate from Bhilai; likewise, Mr. Shiv Pratap Singh’s son, Vijay, who is also the elected Jila Panchayat president of Ambikapur, is in the fray from Bhatgaon as a rebel candidate.

The setup at Ekatm Parisar, the BJP’s state headquarters at Raipur, provided positive proof of this all-pervasive sense of paranoia in that party’s decision-making mechanism during this election. The think-tank, which included only one local leader, Mr. Soudan Singh, was put-up on the third floor; beddings were placed on the stairway leading to that floor, all occupied by RSS-workers from outside the state; the chain-gates outside the entrance to the floor were closed shut, and the only access was through a solitary elevator, again manned by outsider RSS-workers. To further counter dissent, three hundred RSS-workers, especially trained at Nagpur and sent via Indore, were deployed all over the state, with specific emphasis on those constituencies where sitting party MLAs had been denied tickets. Personally, I feel that this almost-neurotic setup is most unbecoming of any party that seeks to function in a democracy like ours.

Yet, for some peculiar reason, the media remains remarkably selective in its coverage of this fact, which is there for all to see. Instead when the PCC president and the two working presidents of the party decide to go to Delhi on separate planes- as they may well do in the natural course- the media portrays it as yet another proof of the intra-party discord: could it be that they expect that the only way the three gentlemen can give a message of unity is by traveling not only on the same plane but perhaps by sitting in the same seat!

Admittedly, a lot of this has to do with the respective ‘cultures’ of both parties. In a truly democratic fashion, everything about the Congress is transparent: things get discussed, things get out. No such degree of freedom exists in the BJP (as indeed in the RSS): party bigwigs decide, everybody else is expected to follow, nobody talks, period. Discipline is the flimsy codename given to this absolute lack of intra-party democracy. But all that is changing, and I saw it very clearly during these elections. In the aftermath of the India Shining Debacle, Mr. Advani had famously lamented what he described as the ‘Congressification of the BJP’. That process, I believe, has reached its apogee in Chhattisgarh during this election.

The BJP, once a party of disciplined cadres, is behaving in many ways like the Congress; and vice-versa. It is curious sort of role-reversal: while grassroots Congress workers were going door-to-door quietly distributing voter slips (realizing perhaps that if they didn’t do so, there’s no way they could survive another five years of this BJP regime even if their leaders may well manage to do so, some of them quite comfortably even), their BJP counterparts, drunk in the excesses of power, could be seen crisscrossing highways in air-conditioned Scorpios fitted with loudspeakers, only stopping by to disburse booze, cash, saris, blankets and other such bounties from the Loot they collected during their five years of Misrule.

For a change, we were the ones taking the beatings, and consequently, I hope, the voter’s sympathy.

*

This article couldn’t possibly be complete if I don’t mention my father, Mr. Ajit Jogi. As I see it, my principal role in this particular election was to ensure that he gets to as many places- and talks to (how he speaks at public meetings is more in the format of a dialogue one has with a close friend and less in the way of a formalistic speech) as many people- as is humanly possible.

By sheer dearth of willpower- there is simply no other explanation- he addressed more than 115 public meetings in 74 (of 90) constituencies in less than fifteen days, sleeping for less than four hours everyday. The maximum time he gave to any constituency was Durg City (from where Mr. Arun Vora is contesting), where he addressed three public meetings and did a road show as well. He took only one last-day public meeting at Kota, my mother’s constituency. As far as Marwahi is concerned, both he and I were forbidden by the people there from coming even for a day, and consequently he didn’t get to go- let alone campaign- in his own constituency at all.

In contrast to this, the chief minister, as his party’s chief campaigner, took less than 90 meetings in more than twenty-five days (he got more campaign time as his party took about two days to finalize its list of candidates while we took fifty), and spent more than four days campaigning in his own constituency (Rajnandgaon), barely making it in time to cast his own vote in his hometown, Kawardha.

Of course, Dr. Singh did try to make an issue of my father’s statement, made several months ago, that he would like to contest against the chief minister from any constituency of the latter’s choosing: however, he did so only after the last date of filing of nominations had ended, when he was quite certain that my father infact would not be able to contest against him. This was because the Congress high command felt, quite rightly, that confining Papa to one constituency- which is what he would have been had he directly taken on the CM- wasn’t a particularly sensible move especially since no one else from his party- the PCC president, two working presidents, the LOP and other state leaders included- was going to be campaigning.

This last aspect too I found somewhat perplexing: why is it that the state chief of the Congress, his one other co-chief and the Leader of Opposition, who all obviously played such a pivotal role in the candidate selection process, didn’t move out one itsy-bitsy bit outside of their respective constituencies to campaign for other party candidates, even those they had gotten the tickets for? How can one claim leadership of the entire state, as some of them no doubt would, when they are so threatened in their own homes to move out & seek support for others?

Coming back to Papa, he labeled the chief minister- the Media’s ‘Chaaur waale Baba’- “Labra Raja” (Liar King): the epitaph isn’t a personal insult, as the BJP leader Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad complained to the Election Commission, but a reminder to the people of the many, many promises that he, as the chief minister, has failed to keep. No jersey-cow for every tribal family, no Rs. 500 monthly stipends for unemployed youth of the state, no waiver of electricity bills, irrigation taxes & farmers’ loans, to name only a few.

My father’s question really was this: can we trust this man- again? Soon, very soon, the answer would be clear, and we- you & I- would know whether we’re going to heaven or whether we’re headed straight in the other direction.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

For three nights and two days now, a city- and a nation- have been held hostage: the precise identity and motive of the perpetrators remains uncertain; their methodology, however, is (regrettably) no longer in doubt: for the umpteenth time, hundreds of unarmed civilians- business travelers, restaurant goers, innocent bystanders, hotel guests & staff- have fallen victim to a meticulously-planned & carefully-coordinated cross-border terrorist attack in the heart of India’s financial capital, Mumbai.

Most significantly, it has exposed the weak underbelly- the absolute vulnerability- of our nation’s security apparatus.

A Different Class of AttacksThe Attack on Mumbai is being televised nonstop. As a blogger, I shall attempt here to put what we are seeing in perspective.

First: the Victims of the Attacks. This isn’t for the first time that the world's Maximum City has come under fire: at least two bomb blasts- one at the Stock Exchange and another on Mumbai’s local trains- have resulted in an equal, if not more, number of deaths. What makes this particular set of attacks different- apart of course from its inherent Drama (to which I shall come to later)- are its Victims, or more precisely, the class of its Victims. Those killed earlier were, to put it blatantly, commoners in an extraordinary situation: the sort of people who live in faraway suburbs and commute in second-class local trains; not exactly the sort who would put up in USD 250 a night suite, or spend an average monthly wage on fine dining at Tiffin, a trendy new restaurant at The Oberoi that was witness to a veritable bloodbath on the night of the attacks.

In this case, the victims are not-quite-common people caught up in what is alarmingly becoming an only too common situation. A lot of the people who were taken hostage & killed during the past forty-eight hours belonged to the so-called Class of Untouchables: those who we- and by we, I mean our Collective Imagination- thought were above, among other things, being attacked by terrorists; the glass-housed Glitterati, so to speak. Now: the glass is broken & we realize- much to our discomfort- that even these hallowed creatures aren’t safe & truth be told, this terrifies us more than any of the previous attacks.

Secondly: the Media’s Role in taking the high-voltage Drama- rapid rounds of crossfire between policemen and terrorists ensconced in sushi-bars, masked commandos descending on rooftops from helicopters, guests waving for help from behind glass windows of their twenty-first floor suites, grenade launchers & AK-47s, bodies of brave warriors wrapped in tricolors, relieved evacuees- into every Indian household with a television set, has, for better & worse, made every Indian- both in India & abroad- a direct participant in the unfolding tragedy. Suddenly, every other news, including the death of a former prime minister, is no longer news. Suddenly, we’re all- you & I- Victims under siege, whether we’re in Mumbai or not. Our feeling of helplessness is- has become- universal: no one is- can be- safe. On the positive side, this creates in us- a largely divided nation- a sense of ‘Unity in Fear’: suddenly, each one of us is saying “Ich Bin Ein Mumbaikar.”

Thirdly: on the flip side, this pervasive sense of Paranoia creates in all of us, an overwhelming need to blame someone, anyone. And the easiest scapegoat: Politicians, of course. It is no secret that the Union Home Minister- and by implication, the Government of India- already suffers from something of a credibility crisis: he was widely ridiculed for reportedly having changed his dress thrice within an hour’s span of Delhi being bombed some months ago; his defense, that this ‘serial-dressing’ wasn’t exactly a vice, did little to assuage a slightly misplaced comparison with a certain Nero, who allegedly played the flute while Rome burned. Apparently, this metaphor has been extended to incorporate all politicians as a species. “Keep Out”, “Get Lost”: these are the overwhelming messages to them. It is they who’ve in the public imagination failed to protect us as a nation. Even worse, we feel they would only be too eager to use this Tragedy for political capital. A case in point is the Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi’s sudden- and thoroughly unproductive- appearance before The Oberoi this afternoon.In my opinion, this last aspect merits further discussion.

They Shoot Politicians, Don’t TheyFor the terrorists- the wannabe fidayeen- the prospect of the Attacks might well have looked like a brochure for a perfect vacation: a Cruise across the quiet blue waters of the Arabian Sea followed by two days & nights of Massacre at a plush Mumbai hotel. Breakfast included & Jannat guaranteed. Bad joke aside, it is precisely this- the ease with which they did it all- that disturbs me most. It is almost as if we- to be more precise, the Awesome Might of the Indian state- put up absolutely no resistance at all. We might just as well have extended them an Invitation.

Less than forty hours into the Attacks, the GOI admitted that it wasn’t equipped to guard its coastline: forty terrorists, armed to the hilt with AK-47s, RDX, hand-grenades & satellite phones, had snuck undetected aboard stolen fishing boats into India’s financial capital without the Marine Police, the Coast Guard or the Customs getting wind of things. Yet: this is merely symptomatic of a massive & deep-rooted Intelligence failure. The different agencies involved in the intelligence business- not just those in India but across the world- simply failed to connect the dots in real-time before it was too late: a stolen boat in Gujarat; six missing fishermen, one of who was later found dead; hi-tech jihadi recruitment & training centers brazenly operating out of Faridkot; calls made to the (erstwhile) L-e-T network in Karachi from satellite phones; sightings of suspicious-looking dinghies by fishermen off the coast of Mumbai.

Intelligence, after all, is more an Art- and less a Science- of stopping things before they happen. By its very nature, therefore, Intelligence cannot be foolproof. We, as a nation, must be prepared to face further possibilities of such failures.

What happened in Mumbai- what is happening in Mumbai even now- has the appearance of an effective but also, a painfully improvised, response to a particular challenge: for the first time in Independent India’s history, the nation’s security forces involving the NSG, the Mumbai Police, Maharashtra’s ATS (Anti-terrorist Squad), the Army, Navy and the Airforce put up a unified response in the face of a sustained, highly coordinated attack carried out from at least three well-supplied ‘control rooms’ in the heart of Mumbai’s commercial-administrative district lasting no less than forty-eight hours (and still not showing signs of ending).

There are important lessons to be learnt from this. More than anything else, the manner in which the situation in Mumbai is being ‘contained’ gives us reason for Hope: we aren’t as ill-prepared as we had feared; indeed, our security forces have shown remarkable fortitude in the face of terrifying calamities.

The politicians, if simply because they’ve let them (the forces) do their job without becoming too much of a nuisance, deserve a second chance to get their act in order & not, mind you, for milking this Tragedy for political mileage.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

A most disturbing incident has occurred in Ramanujganj-7 (ST) constituency, which has shaken the very foundations of democracy in Chhattisgarh: Shri Ram Vichar Netam, state home minister & BJP candidate from that constituency, is even now, at the time of writing of this post (1830 hrs), personally present inside polling booths number 22 & 23 (Pachawal), where he has been actively rigging the EVMs in his favor for the past two hours. The Congress candidate, Shri Brihaspat Singh (telephone number: 9407618630, 9406221282), who is also present on the spot, was physically beaten up by the hon’ble home minister & his armed security officers, and thrown out of the booth. He is present at Pachawal now, and can furnish an eye witness account of what is happening there.

All this has been communicated to the Collector & RO, Ambikapur, and the SP, Balrampur, at least one hour ago, but no action has been taken. Shri Badrinarayan Meena, the SP, is a known supporter of the hon’ble home minister, and was personally posted by the latter in his home district some months ago for exactly such an occasion.

On the contrary, Shri Alok Shukla, the chief electoral officer of the state, has denied this incident altogether in a televised press conference at the exact same time when the hon’ble minister is personally rigging the EVMs. All this shows the complicity of the state administration in aiding the ruling party to subvert democracy in Chhattisgarh.

I hope that justice will prevail, and the voices of the villagers of Pachawal will not be allowed to be stifled by the very person entrusted by our Constitution to protect them: at every cost, repolls must take place in the aforementioned polling booths.

AJ

Post Script:Brihaspati Singh lost by 4000 votes. He trailed by more than 2200 from Pachawal. Despite numerous complaints, no repoll was ordered.

Ram Vichar Netam has been divested of the Home portfolio although he continues to be a minister in the current government.Read More (आगे और पढ़ें)......

Monday, August 25, 2008

What's in an And?As an ardent admirer of Jared Diamond’s ongoing treatise (expounded in a series of best-selling books beginning with ‘Guns, Germs, Steel’), I have come to believe that Geography, more than any other factor, is indeed the fundamental vector in shaping the course of Human History: when we speak of the state of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), the epicenter of the Amarnath Controversy, the operative words are neither ‘J’ nor ‘K’; it is, infact, the quintessential ‘&’. This ‘&’ seeks to drive an irreconcilable wedge between the two; and Minority Appeasement, that cunning little creature about which we discussed in the last post, is, as it turns out, the double-edged sword that has brought this about.

For as long as one can remember, these two regions, connected only by an umbilical cord of the Jammu-Srinagar national highway painstakingly tunneled through mountains, have functioned as disparate geopolitical entities: a Hindu-dominated J on the plains, and a Muslim-dominated K in the Valley. Ergo, when the J&K government handed over 100 acres of forest land to the Shrine Board, the Muslim-majority in Kashmir saw it as appeasement of the Hindu-majority in Jammu, possibly with an eye towards an impending Assembly election; when they took it back, the rest of the country saw it as an effort to once again appease the already over-appeased Kashmiri Muslims. Despite this somewhat hasty governmental-afterthought- to take back the allotted land thereby removing the immediate cause of Kashmiri discontent- the Valley continues to boil: in the words of a separatist pro-Pakistan Hurriyat leader, Syed Gilani, the land itself has become a ‘non-issue’. If so, what then is the issue? Clearly, this somewhat simplistic communal distinction isn’t adequate to explain what’s happening in- and to- J&K.

For the first time, the (Indian) state seems to be at a total & utter loss: sure, it was a mistake to give land to the Shrine Board in the first place, now we can all see that; but wasn’t that decision revoked, and the mistake rectified? Why, then, aren’t things settling down? Why, for instance, are millions of Kashmiris suddenly marching all over Srinagar hurling green-colored Pakistani flags, wishing each other ‘belated Happy Independence day’ on 15th August? Why have they all set their watches thirty minutes behind? Don’t they- can’t they- see that that these Pakis have done nothing for Kashmiris except to smuggle them guns & bombs to blow each other to smithereens? Surely, they ought to understand that we, the Indians, are their true friends, their only well-wishers.

And that is the exact point of this whole Controversy: the Kashmiris do not see us, the Indians, as their friends; on the contrary, we’re perceived as the Enemy; even more worryingly, Pakistan is viewed as the Good Guy. Suddenly, this business of Minority Appeasement isn’t confined to India alone; it has quite simply gone transnational.

Sheesh MahalTo understand why- despite the state government’s best efforts to assuage the Kashmiri sentiment in the Amarnath land-allocation controversy; despite the imposition of Article 370 that guarantees Kashmir’s special status; despite the tens of billions of rupees spend by the GOI to develop the Valley- we Indians have become villains in the eyes of countless ordinary Kashmiris, and not just extremist-jihadis, it is important to look at what followed the government’s decision to take back the land: a nationwide Bandh was called by the BJP to gain political capital from that decision, citing it as yet another example of Congress’ efforts at Minority Appeasement; thousands of saffron flag-hurling Hindu hardliners, led by the VHP-RSS combine under the banner of a swiftly-assembled ‘Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti’, took to the streets in Jammu; and most dangerously, the Jammu-Srinagar highway- that most delicate umbilical cord- was blockaded, effectively cutting-off the Valley from rest of the country. In the midst of all this anti-Kashmiri sentiment across the nation, 500,000 Hindus quietly completed their annual Amarnath pilgrimage, unmolested & unharmed. Now, under these circumstances, what would you think if you were a Kashmiri living in the Valley? Wouldn’t you feel that an entire nation was suddenly gunning for you; trying to starve you to death by cutting-off the sole supply-line to the Valley; and, in short, threatening your very existence? The presence of half a million armed-to-the-teeth battle-ready troops in Indian Army uniforms with not the best sort of human-rights record to speak of, living in your midst for the past two decades would only aggravate your sense of alienation, even hostility, to Mother India. Add to this the fact that what used to be trickle of barely 20,000 pilgrims every year from the mainland less than fifteen years ago has become a flood of 500,000; not only that, suddenly, these pilgrims- or those managing their annual pilgrimage anyway- are claiming your land, land that is clearly not theirs, and what’s more, your government is only too keen to hand it to them; today, it is land for the Yatra; tomorrow, it will be land for other things, and very soon, you- and by you, I mean people who’ve lived in the Valley since forever- will have become exiles in your own homeland.

In contrast, you would see a mute Pakistan- which has of late been much too involved in its own political mess to give little more than ‘moral support’ to the ‘struggle’ in Kashmir- to be the very incarnation of the Mahdi, the Promised Deliverer; or atleast, as a fellow Muslim in the struggle to establish the Dar-ul-Islam. And this is precisely how ordinary Kashmiris- students, wives, houseboat wallahs, apple pluckers, children- are beginning to see their world.

For the first time, the struggle in Kashmir has gone non-violent; and not because of any particular fascination for the Mahatma either. It’s simply because it’s simply not possible for millions of ordinary civilians to procure AK-47s & turn up armed at rallies: a mass movement, if it is really that, has, therefore, definitely got to be non-violent because of logistical considerations. There is, ironically enough, peace in numbers. Also, for the first time since 1989, the militant-jihadis- the Lashkar-e-Toibas and the Jaish-e-Mohammeds of this godforsaken world- have taken a backseat, quite content to let unarmed civilians take to the frontlines. And for the first time, the GOI- and its half a million troops stationed in the Valley- don’t know what to do. What, for instance, should be the ideal strategic response to an unarmed pregnant woman climbing up a pole to take down the tricolor and hoist a green Pakistani crescent in its place? Arrest her? Shoot her? Perhaps. But what if, for instance, she is not alone; what if there are 300,000 other unarmed women, children and men cheering her from below? What is the ideal strategic response, then? Do we shoot all of them too?

In the inevitable blame-game of History, who will ultimately be held responsible for putting us- India- squarely in the accused-box: the half-baked thinking of the state government that led it first to give land to the Amarnath Shrine Board, only to take it back a couple of days later; the RSS troika (RSS-VHP-BJP combine), which made such a nationwide ruckus out of that decision, and ultimately, instigated the Blockade of the Valley; the Ministry of Home Affairs- and the GOI- which thought that the Blockade wasn’t such a bad idea after all, and that it may, in the end, actually help quiet things down, take the steam out of the struggle, so to speak? The answers, I’m afraid, are not going to be easy.

If and when History does indeed decide to pronounce judgment on us- Indians, Kashmiris, Hindus, Muslims, secularists, communalists, civilians, military- it would most probably don the dress of the Prince in the last scene of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and say: “A curse on all your houses!”

Sunday, August 24, 2008

At the face of it, the decision to handover land to the Amarnath Shrine Board, a religious trust entrusted with the organization of a hugely popular annual Hindu pilgrimage involving millions of participants from all over India, only to take it back a few days later, isn’t exactly good politics; to be absolutely honest, it reminds me of another decision, taken in the mid-1980s, to reopen the gates of the Babri Masjid complex at Ayodhya. And we all know, where that landed us. The point, which many politicians tend to forget, is to let sleeping dogs lie.

Going Down Secularism’s Rabbit HoleIt’s all very well to say that India is “secular” but strictly speaking, that isn’t- can’t be- true. We’re secular, but in our own peculiar sort of way: to us, being secular doesn’t mean being irreligious (as it does in Turkey and in much of the West); here, it simply means ‘sarvadharma sambhav’ or equal goodwill to all religions- not only by the state in the formulation & execution of its policies but also by citizens in their attitude towards fellow-citizens. Implicit in this interpretation is the acceptance that religions are indeed inseparable from- and intrinsic to- public life. Put differently, they- i.e., the state and religion- cannot be put into two neat, totally unrelated, compartments. The recognition of this fact should then be the starting point of all debate on religious issues; otherwise we mistakenly risk being labeled ‘communal’ or worse, ‘pseudo-secular’.

But that’s not quite it. The movement from being secular to secularism entails two further Duties both on the state and on citizens that go beyond simple, passive-goodwill; in effect, these Duties actualize- and make manifest- the dictum of sarvadharma sambhav, and in so doing, explicitly obligate the state to participate in matters otherwise purely pertaining to religious faith.

To understand the basis of the first such Duty, it is important to appreciate that not all religions are equally represented; indeed, Hindus constitute an overwhelming majority in India. In order to ensure that the majority-will doesn’t encroach upon the distinctive identities of religious-minorities, the Constitution provides for certain safeguards: if the religious-identity of a minority-community comes under threat, then it becomes the duty of the state to necessarily & actively participate in what is technically speaking, a purely religious matter. A Delhi High Court judgment last week permitting St. Stephen’s College, a ‘minority educational establishment’ I went to, to appoint its own Principal & set its own rules with respect to its admission policy without interference from the Delhi University, is a case in point.

The second Duty that Indian-secularism enjoins upon the state is to create conditions wherein persons of all religious-faiths, including those belonging to religious minorities, can freely practice, preach and propagate their religion. In this respect, while the state isn’t expected to directly participate in a religious matter, it must do so to the extent that citizens are allowed to practice, preach & propagate their respective faiths freely: if, for instance, a person is being physically prevented from going to his place of worship, it becomes the duty of the state to remove all such barriers; likewise, if a person is converted by force of threat, then the state has to ensure that such force is removed. The adaptation- as opposed to adoption- of the secular principle to the recently partitioned & newly independent nation-state served, therefore, as a necessary guarantee that majority-communalism- i.e., the unilateral rule of the religious-majority over those in minority- would not be justified on the basis of a democratic number game, as Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, had (let us hope, mistakenly) prophesized: in this sense, it became the single most important foundation-stone in ‘the idea of India’, and the sole reason why those minorities- in particular, the Muslims- who willfully stayed behind rather than leave for Pakistan did what they chose to do.

Having said that, the nation-state’s obligation to discharge both these Duties- which admittedly implies its active participation in religious affairs- has led to two further controversies over India’s unique brand of secularism: the first Duty (of safeguarding minority-identity) creates the controversy commonly called Minority Appeasement; while the second Duty (of creating conditions for persons to freely practice etc. their respective faiths) has opened the Pandora’s Box of Religious Conversions. As we will see, both these controversies are related basically to degrees of state-participation in the religious realm; and not to the principle of it.

The controversy over Religious Conversions arises out of the accusation that the state is doing very little to prevent them. The controversy over Minority Appeasement, on the other hand, is the opposite of this: it arises out of the accusation that the state is doing too much in discharging its first Duty, i.e., safeguarding minority-interests; that the state is infact doing so at the expense of legitimate interests- and demands- of the majority community, which are being squarely overlooked.

This, as it turns out, is the précis of the ongoing Amarnath Shrine Board debate and also, curiously enough, the reason why the gates of the Babri Masjid were opened.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Tomorrow’s Vote is not about the survival of the UPA; it is about India’s self-respect. Never before has Parliament convened to discuss a more important issue- one whose consequences would not only decide the fate of a government but also determine the place India will take in the 21st century.

During the last general elections, the people of India voted out the NDA because they felt that it was doing very little for the poor. The UPA, therefore, is- if nothing else- a government of the poor, for the poor and by the poor. In my opinion, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s government has been driven by only one consideration (inspired by the Mahatma’s talisman about the daridra narayan): how do we restore the self-respect of India’s poor, especially the farmers whose blood, toil and sweat feed us? The NREGA ensures that the sons & daughters of farmers no longer have to go begging for jobs in faraway city slums; now, hundreds of millions living in the villages can claim employment as a birth right. Not only do they live with self-respect, thanks to the NREGA, but in doing so, they are creating billions of rupees worth of rural infrastructure. Also, under the UPA, Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for foodgrains have more than tripled; farmers’ loans have been waived across the board. Never before in the history of India have the farmers got higher prices for their crops than now. The same goes for tribals. By enacting the Tribal Act, they have once again been made masters of their own homes.

Rajiv ji had forewarned at the historic Bombay AICC Session (1985) that of every rupee sent by GOI, only a fraction reaches its intended beneficiary. To ensure, therefore, that the benefits of the aforementioned schemes reach their rightful beneficiaries, the UPA has enacted the RTI. No other step has done more to weed out the cancer of corruption that is eating into the fabric of our society. RTI has not merely attacked the symptom of that disease, but its cause (lack of transparency). Henceforth, every citizen has a right to know what his government is up to, and to hold it to the test of accountability.

The above-mentioned steps- both historic and momentous- have gone a long way in restoring the self-confidence of those who had been left out from India’s march towards development for too long. The Civil Nuclear Energy Agreement too should, then, be seen in light of UPA’s overriding commitment to India’s self-respect. India is a nation of a billion people with a great and proud history and one of the world’s strongest, fastest growing economies- and yet for too long have we been denied our right place in the family of nations. Thus far, a select club of nations has decided who should have the right to keep what; and who should not. With the Nuclear Agreement, all that will change. As I see it- and as millions of other Indians see it- this Deal is the much-awaited & long-cherished Recognition & Validation of India’s Greatness by the world community.

Those who oppose it do so without reason; not only are they opportunists, they are also anti-national. Those who oppose it today are the same people who were in two minds about whether to condemn the Chinese aggression of India in 1962. Those who oppose it today by saying that the deal is pro-US should not forget that when the US 7th fleet was in the Bay of Bengal in 1971, a Congress government opposed it. Let there be no doubt that we have- and will- oppose the US- or for that matter, any other power- that seeks to compromise India’s self-respect. Those who oppose it today also opposed IT revolution ushered in by Rajiv ji in the 1980s; today those same people cannot live without mobile phones and the internet. Those who oppose the Agreement today would have happily settled for a less than equitable 1-2-3 agreement less than five years ago. Last but not the least, those who oppose this Vote today have very clearly succumbed to a Shameful Politics of Opportunism. They are not interested in India; they are only interested in grabbing power. By standing solidly behind the Nuclear Agreement, Congress has put Principles- most of all, the Principle of National Self-Respect- over any Opportunistic consideration.

The one true test of the Agreement- indeed any agreement- is its cost-benefit analysis. For India, this is a WIN/WIN situation: we will now have access to the latest nuclear technology and materials WITHOUT compromising in any way our national defense program. That is indeed a privilege extended to no other nation (which hasn't signed the NPT and CTBT). Moreover, the recent rise in petrol prices has exposed our nation’s vulnerability; never before have we felt more acutely the need for developing alternative sources of energy. Nuclear energy has tremendous potential: not only is it clean and cost-effective; it is also NECESSARY to power India’s drive towards the forefront of nations. It will enable us to fulfill Rajiv ji’s dream of making the 21st century- the Indian century.

In the end, the Vote is not only about us, but for future generations- our unborn sons and daughters- so that they don’t say that we compromised India’s interests at this crucial juncture in our history.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Note: Dr. Saibel Farishta recently accompanied me to the final match of the district-level floodlight cricket tournament held at Takhatpur, a quaint little township some twenty kilometers from Bilaspur. He has put his observations on his blog, which I am reproducing here:

On 15th June 2008 - I had accompanied Mr Amit Jogi and Mr Shailesh Nitin Trivedi on a political visit to Takhatpur in Bilaspur district, where Mr Amit Jogi was invited as the Chief Guest in the closing ceremony of an annual Cricket Tounament Function. I was stunned to see the mind-blowing enthusiasm among the young Congress party supporters of Takhatpur. The customary felicitation ceremony was held on a cricket ground in the central part of the town, as the local Govt. authorities had refused the organizers another School Ground, where Dr Raman Singh was supposed to deliver speech during his 'Vikas/Vinash Yatra'.

On several occasions, Mr Amit Jogi's entourage was cheered and welcomed by a huge number of young Congress workers. A lot of people from the minority communities, esp. Muslims & Sikhs, were also seen welcoming Mr Amit Jogi.

Mr Amit Jogi, Mr Dharamjeet Singh and others briefly spoke to the audience. Amitji emphasized on the power of youth in today's politics and how Mr Rahul Gandhi was spearheading a campaign, to join & re-unite the country's youth in Congress Party. Amitji also disclosed that another budding & upcoming youth organisation - 'Aam Aadmi Ke Sipahi' had been formed by Rahul Gandhi, to connect with the common man's problems.

The Congress supporters thronged Mr Amit Jogi's car from all directions and the vehicle's doors were dented from outside.

There was an amazing atmosphere of 'Genuine Respect & Good will' for the Jogi family, as a whole. In between all of this - loud noise of a musical band, chanting of slogans, bursting of crackers, garlands and Congress flags - I was moved, when my eyes fell on some rurals, who just stood at a distance, far from the maddening crowd, with their hands joined, welcoming & staring at Mr Amit Jogi. Their eyes glittered with a ray of Hope for them & The Poor Man's Party - Congress.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

I had taken the liberty of simultaneously putting the last post on cg-net, a Yahoo-based group that focuses on Chhattisgarh. In response to that posting, a member, Ajai Kumar Singh, posed the following question (in a separate thread):

"A question to all? Are we use this group to campaigning party politics. One should put the solutions or Ideas, not only criticising each other."

As it turns out, Mr. Singh's query has evoked a rather fascinating discussion- with a flurry of (I am happy to note, mostly) for & against responses. For instance, I am in total agreement with what Mr. OP Goel said:

"We must allow everyone to express themselves in whatever manner they want[other than being nasty and personal]. A tolerant society is the hallmark of a vibrant democracy.

We started with the objective of development of CG. Can we take a step forward to this goal? As they say in China, a journey of 1000 miles has to begin with the first step."

"I don't see any objection in this. We all know Amit Jogi is a son of Ajit Jogi ji and his political association. This is good for us to know his thought about policies and what they think in this regard. One more thing I want to share that earlier I have a negative image in my mind about Amit but after reading his thoughts on various issues I have changed my mind about him and this (has) happen(ed) through cg net. What's wrong in it?"

What do I think about all this? Well, apart from the fact that this Blog- and cg net- give me a space for voicing my side of the story that the mainstream does- and can- not, it may be little more than a coincidence but the first actual responses to the Vikas Yatra came shortly after the publication of that post. A group of tribals in Korba reminded Dr. Raman Singh of his long-forgotten ‘sankalp’ to give them jersey cows; they did so by waving Gervas, or jute-ropes that they might otherwise have used to harness Dr. Singh’s non-existent cows, and copies of the BJP’s Sankalp Patr as he rode past in his 'Vikas Rath'. In response, they were mercilessly lathi-charged.

In Pusaur, the rural hinterland of Raigarh city that I toured yesterday, over 5000 tribals are threatening to tie the HCM in one and take him home instead of the absentee-cows they haven't got even if they can’t really milk him (!). They also pointed out that neither Dr. Singh nor his supposedly 'Hindu' party have the slightest respect for the precepts of that religion: first, they defiled the name of Lord Ram by reneging on a sacred vow taken in his name (kasam ram ki khaate hain, mandir wahin banayenge); and now, they have done the same to the holy-of-holies, the Gau Mata (Mother Cow).

On the 14th of this month, a massive rally of mostly unemployed youth in Bilaspur chipped in Rs. 500 in coins and small change to remind Dr. Singh of his promise to give them that amount as monthly stipend. Many of them have since begun to be threatened with dire consequences by a local minister.

In Raigarh, a mock Chhal Rath (Betrayal Chariot) Yatra was taken out- in which a Dr. Raman Singh lookalike spoke about the promises he cunningly made to dupe the simple people of Chhattisgarh, and other issues of corruption and total breakdown of law & order.

A lot of this has already been covered by the local media, and people everywhere are finally begin to ask a question not many cared to ask before: can we trust this man- and his party?

It seems to me that once you begin to criticize (which to me is no different an act from speaking the truth), then people are quite capable of coming up with their own suggestions- and even more significantly, reactions. The two acts- criticizing and suggesting- aren’t all that different.

Perhaps, this is what Hegel- and Marx after him- had in mind when they coined the triple-phrase ‘thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis’. And more often than not, synthesis is coda for action.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

There is an old adage that goes something like this: you can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time but not all of the people all of the time. This adage, however, doesn’t seem to apply to Dr. Raman Singh, the chief minister of Chhattisgarh.

The clearest example of this is his much-publicized, government-sponsored Vikas Yatra: frankly, it is beyond me how he can go to the people, riding gallantly atop a customized state-of-the-art air-conditioned Rath, when he has betrayed them by not fulfilling one word of his party’s Sankalp Patr? Either he is totally and absolutely shameless or worse, he thinks that Chhattisgarhiyas, by nature, are fools. Anybody in his shoes should have hid his face in shame. Instead, he has decided to spend tens of crores of the state’s- and the people’s- money in telling Lies a hundred times in the hope that they would somehow become the truth.

This is perhaps for the first time that the state machinery- and funds- have been so brazenly used for what is a purely political campaign. To me, this is not only evidence of Dr. Singh's excessive reliance on the bureaucracy- his partner-in-crime, so to speak- to see his party reelected; but more significantly, it shows the BJP’s inability to undertake a full-fledged political campaign on its own. Personally, I doubt if Dr. Singh can draw a crowd in the excess of 1000 on his own, and without active state assistance. What’s more, the enactment of the Vikas Yatra clearly shows that he shares this doubt.

The state’s mainstream media, it seems, too suffer from what can charitably be called collective amnesia: rather than sing paens to the chief minister (Vikas Purush, my foot!), it is their duty to remind those in power of the promises they’d made before coming to power- and happily forgotten since. Did not, for instance, Dr. Singh promise among other things, a jersey cow to every tribal family; Rs. 500 monthly unemployment stipend to every youth; and waiver of farmers’ debts, irrigation tax and electricity bills?

It is these tall promises that brought him to power in the first place. In four years, he has done absolutely nothing to fulfill them. This, in my opinion, constitutes a Historic Betrayal of the People of Chhattisgarh- and especially the tribals, the dalits, the youth and the poor, the ones to whom these promises were specifically made. Unfortunately, these people are, because of their peculiar conditions, unable to give voice to their resentment, their anguish, and under these circumstances, the media and the opposition should have emerged as their spokesperson. In the past four years, neither has managed to do so.

Dr. Singh’s Great- and possibly only- Hope is the success of his Rs. 3 per kilo rice scheme, which he launched in obvious desperation less than a year before elections. (His other Hope, i.e., absence of a united opposition has, especially in light of recent decisions made by the Congress High Command, turned out to be a myth.) If I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t be quite as confident. I’ve toured the state extensively. Chhattisgarhiyas, by nature, are rice eaters. Dr. Singh’s measly quota of 35 kilos per month wouldn’t last a family of four, even a BPL (below poverty line) family, a week. More than anything else, this shows just how little Dr. Singh- and the chaps in khaki shorts who’re plotting his comeback strategy- understand us. Moreover, at least 40% of those having BPL cards had their names struck off during the 2004 statewide revision of BPL lists. In villages like Laata (which is very near our ancestral village of Jogisaar), there are only 5 BPL-card holders among the 400 odd families who live there (!) In Basantpur, for instance, 14 persons who’ve been issued BPL cards haven’t got an ounce of rice to date. The rice that is distributed under this scheme is undoubtedly substandard, and the packets inevitably weigh less than 35 kilos. It would infact not be farfetched to assume that at least 30% of the rice finds it way to the black market. Not surprisingly then, most BPL families are forced to buy their remaining rice requirement from the black market, where the rates have increased threefold to as high as Rs. 18 a kilo ever since this scheme started, thanks to the hoarding & blackmarketeering it has given rise to. In the ultimate analysis, it appears that as with most of Dr. Singh’s schemes, this one too is intended not for the benefit of the poor but to fill the already overstuffed pockets of his corrupt sponsors.

Curiously, Dr. Singh’s propaganda-managers, such as they are, proclaim a “Fear-free administration” (bhay mukt sarkar) as yet another of his strong points. They would certainly have a tough time convincing the over 80000 tribals of South Bastar, who Dr. Singh’s SPOs forcefully uprooted from their homes before packing them like cattle into inhuman makeshift concentration camps and thousands others who are molested, raped and killed outright; the hundreds of city women and girls who no longer feel safe to venture out of their homes; the three dalit women who’re raped every day (according to the Government’s own figures); the shopkeepers and businessmen who have to pay protection money to local goondas (not to mention the minister’s brother, and the local thanedaar); the hundreds of farmers who’ve been forced to commit suicide; the dalit boys who are beaten to death in police custody; the mother who had her infant-child stolen from the capital, Raipur’s biggest government hospital; the residents of Dantewada and Jashpur on the night of the jailbreaks…The list is endless. Indeed, it would not be farfetched to say that in the last four years, Chhattisgarh has turned into the most dangerous state in the country, especially if you’re a tribal, a dalit or a woman. The only persons who are truly fearless are the profiteers, the bureaucrats and the criminals- who rightly believe that they can get away with anything.

Dr. Singh’s other advantage is money: he hopes to overwhelm our entire campaign with funds, as he tried to do in Kota. But as Kota showed, money- even ten times as much- just isn’t enough when it comes to winning elections. What he needs instead is People’s Confidence and Trust, and these, unfortunately (for him anyway) cannot be bought.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Vivek Tank is a national award winning flutist. He is also a very gifted human shehnai (note that he is not a shehnai-wadak but shehnai-incarnate). In this pod, he does a solo recital first; then accompanies Anuj Sharma in a duet. Enjoy!

On this day, for instance, we drove about 400 kms across four districts (Raipur, Bilaspur, Durg, Dhamtari) to attend 2 weddings and 2 funerals, & 2 public functions where I was required to make speeches. Not surprisingly, by the time we reached Parkhanda, we were already 4 hours late.

Most visits follow a pattern: you are welcomed to shouts of Zindabaad, drum beats and the lighting of fire-crackers, then you walk in a procession to the venue where they seat you on a stage, about 40-50 people- the notables of the village- garland you as people come to you with applications and other sorts of requests, then the speeches begin ending with yours, following which the organizers present you with a shawl or some such memento. After that- if you've still got time- you might be taken to the organizer's home for tea, snacks and a photo-session with his family and followers. This pattern, I believe, has endured unchanged from the days of Mahatma Gandhi, India's first mass-politician (if not before!).

The stage, for me, presents a dilemma: on the one hand, it does increase your visibility (i.e., even the back-standers can see you) but the flip-side is that it creates a 'distance' between the people seated on the ground and those atop the stage. That is why I make it a point to go through the crowd where it is at its thickest- shaking as many hands as I can while chatting with them randomly (specially the youth and children)- on my way to and from the stage. More than anything else, this last aspect tells me what I need to really know: to share in the lives- the joys and sufferings- of the people who've given my family so much love.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

SNT threw one helluva Holi party last evening. Anuj got his friend, Vivek Tank, the national award winning flutist, to perform for us; Amit Tiwari organized bhajias and thandai; and VN flew in some excellent kebabs from a joint in Mumbai. Needless to say, the occasion called for a certain amount of joie de vivre: in this clip, the youthful Dr. Farishta (Saibel's father) persuades me to dance.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

The Youth Congress invited me to attend their annual Holi Milan party. I accepted, blissfully unaware that they had decided to crown me the King of Buffoons in a very farcical public ceremony! Needless to say, the Crown (and the garland of vegetables that came with it) was well deserved.

After an exhaustive non-stop tour that began on the 16th of December last year, I decided that it was finally time for some rest. Consequently on the 25th of February, SNT, VN, Anuj and I sneaked off to the Kanha National Park: we spent one very happy day (and night) in the wilderness before a phone call rudely interrupted our brief idyll. These are some pictures of that time.
Read More (आगे और पढ़ें)......

Saturday, March 08, 2008

One of the posts I had published on this Blog last month was stolen: in total disregard of my request not to reprint it without taking my prior consent, Sunil Maheshwari, the editor a local Raipur-based eveninger, printed it on the front page of the “Daily Chhattisgarh” under the headline “Amit ne Internet pe virodhiyon ke saath hisaab chukta kiya” (Amit settles scores with opponents on Internet). Thereafter, it was free for all: other newspapers- including three columnists and at least one cartoonist- were quick to follow in Mr. Maheshwari’s footsteps; there was even some talk of my so-called ‘opponents’ posting their own counter-reply on the Internet (this, however, is yet to materialize).

His explanation, given to a mutual friend, was that “you can’t put posters all over town and expect people not to talk about it” makes some sense: the internet, after all, is public domain; nothing on it is, technically speaking, private. Intellectual Property Rights, in praxis, don’t account for much, I guess, especially in a world inhabited by the likes of Mr. Maheshwari. My grudge, if one can call it that, was not that the post was published; but with who published it, and the somewhat myopic perspective given to that publication. Surely, a writer ought to have control over that much at least.

In any case, I think removing the post from the Blog wasn’t right: it has, I believe, sent the wrong message; that writers can be hounded into submission by a self-proclaimed dictatorship of pseudo-intellectuals, or that intra-party democracy is dead in the Congress party. Neither of these assumptions is true.

Consequently, “केशकाल में दुकाल ” makes its comeback on ½ Freedoms! I am sorry it was removed in the first place.

Friday, March 07, 2008

I have spent the better part of the past two months redrafting the Constitution of the Indian Youth Congress. It has not been changed (or for that matter- read) since it was first adopted in 1983: consequently, the late Smt. Indira Gandhi continues to be lifetime chairperson of its penultimate Central Advisory Board. Some of the provisions suggested, like having two-yearly elections to fill organizational posts, have never been put into actual practice. More than a quarter of a century since its adoption, the overall feeling one gets from reading the document, therefore, is that it belongs to another age; and is hardly suited to the needs of our own time.

In all, I have proposed more than 27 major and several minor amendments. Suggestions I had proposed in an earlier presentation (Blueprint for Building a New IYC) have also been incorporated. Below is a brief 15-point Synopsis of the Amendments:

1. Membership rules have been changed to incorporate one common Form (as opposed to three for becoming primary and active members and for renewal of membership) to be filled annually by members; performance-determined levels of membership have been assigned; and strategies have been proposed for substantially enhancing the number of women members. (Art. VIII)

2. Form A has been made digitally readable and includes blood group-type information and an eye-donation form. This will transform IYC into India's biggest blood bank and eye-donor agency.

3. Schedule One contains the algorithm that the digital-reader would follow for determining membership-level based on information supplied in Form A. (Art. IX)

4. To increase organizational-penetration at the grassroots level, two new primary units have been introduced: booth-level Rajiv Gandhi Shakti Kendras (RGSKs) and panchayat-level SHGs called Indira Gandhi Svasahayata Samitis (IGSSs). (Art. XI A and B)

5. RGSKs are purely political bodies dealing with booth-management during elections.

6. IGSSs are self-sustaining, income generating, socio-economic units ultimately aimed at creating what could possibly be the largest multifaceted NGO in the country: personally I can think of no better way to counter Ekal vidyalayas, Vanvasi kalyan ashrams and other such RSS outfits that have infiltrated the rural belt of India. They combine a distinct social welfare agenda with innovative income-generating asset-creating techniques within the political framework of the YC.

7. IGSSs are governed by a separate subsidiary constitution provided in Schedule Two.

8. Both the RGSK and IGSS networks will be sort of a proto-cadre of the Congress.

9. A formula has been worked out for the number of elected and nominated posts in IYC, PYC, DYC and BYC executive committees; precise rules for work allocation have been framed; specific tasks assigned; monitoring and feedback mechanisms are in place; and guidelines for setting up departments and their functions have also been specified. (Arts. XI C, XII, XIII, XVI, XIX)

10. The election process itself has been overhauled completely: a CEC (Central Election Committee) has been created as an autonomous body; precise schedules, guidelines, and modus operandi have been laid down; executive committees are proposed to be dissolved to prevent any overriding interference/tweaking with the election process; the block level elections would be direct; executive committee members thus chosen would elect the DYC executive, who will in turn elect the PYC. All elected executive committee members- Block, District and Pradesh- would then be delegates at a national convention where the national committee would be elected. (Art. XVIII)

11. Differential Criteria has been fixed for who can vote and contest- based primarily on their involvement with the organization (to eliminate the possibility of candidates making members only for the purpose of getting themselves elected while also ensuring that performance- merit- gets rewarded). (Art. VIII, IX)

12. Dates- and time- have been specified for simultaneous nationwide meetings of executive committees; & block, district, state and national-level conventions; agendas- and formats of minutes- have been set.

13. A permanent training facility (Rajiv Gandhi Yuva Prashikshan Kendra)- and a monthly magazine- have been incorporated in Schedule Three of the constitution.

14. A comprehensive Budget has been proposed: new sources of revenue have been created; collection points identified; and precise function-based distribution of revenues done. (Art. X)

15. A definitive target-oriented socio-political agenda has been incorporated into Art. III (Functions) based on additional institutions and functions that have been inbuilt into the constitution.

Below I reproduce the text of the 1983 document; followed by my comment, and the proposed Amendment. Your suggestions are, as always, welcome, particularly with respect to Art. II dealing with the OBJECT (AIM) of the IYC.

Amit Aishwarya Jogi

FIRST DRAFT OF THE REVISEDINDIAN YOUTH CONGRESS CONSTITUTIONWith commentary

AMIT AISHWARYA JOGI

Article 1: NAMEThe name of the organization shall be the “Indian Youth Congress”.AMENDMENT AA-1[Hindi: The name of the organization shall be the “Bhartiya Yuva Congress”]

Article 2: OBJECTThe object of the Indian Youth Congress shall be to [(a)] organize the Youth of India towards the realization of the objectives of the Indian National Congress, [(b)] to train them in the duties and rights of citizenship, [(c)] to enable them to contribute towards the realization of a secular, socialist, democratic republic as envisaged by Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Nation, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and as incorporated in the Constitution of India during Smt. Indira Gandhi’s tenure as Prime Minister.

Comment:(a) The language of Art. 2 is, at best, vague: it does not specify what precisely are ‘the objectives of the Indian National Congress’, the ‘realization’ of which is its primary- and it would seem, only- objective. In fact, in making this highly generalized assertion, it denies the IYC an identity of its own; indeed, if the realization of the parent body’s unspecified objectives is its sole reason for existence, then that reason can best be served within the AICC superstructure, implying thereby that there is no need for a separate- and distinct- frontal organization.(b) The words ‘organize’, ‘train’ and ‘enable’ (the Youth of India) define the Function of the IYC. However, they do not carry the force of what the IYC today seeks to do: Unite and Empower.(c) For some reason, only three of four of Pandit Nehru’s non-negotiable principles have been mentioned in defining the ideal-India: ‘secular, socialist, democratic’. A much more correct expression would, therefore, be ‘sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic’. Moreover, the reference to ‘the Father of the Nation’ must involve his principles of Ahimsa and Satyagrah, which- as a recent film demonstrated- haven’t entirely been lost on today’s Youth. What they need, really, is to be ‘repackaged’. (d) The allusion to the incorporation of the ideals of ‘a secular, socialist, democratic republic’ ‘in the Constitution of India’ ‘during Smt. Indira Gandhi’s tenure as Prime Minister’ is somewhat misleading for two reasons: one, it suggests that prior to Mrs. Gandhi’s tenure as P.M., they weren’t part of the Constitution of India (which is incorrect); two, it overlooks the fact that much of what was changed vide the 42nd Amendment was undone by the Morarji Desai Government vide the 44th Amendment: in effect, the only part retained was the incorporation of the word ‘Secular’ in the Preamble. Even so, any reference to Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s contribution to the body-politic of this nation must incorporate two aspects: (a) her crusade against Poverty (Garibi Hatao); and (b) her victory over Pakistan and Pokhran-I, both of which went a long way in making India a ‘Great Power’.(e) There is no allusion in the document to the Role of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi: he continues to be the single greatest Icon for the Youth of India. His words “I am young, I too have a Dream” continue to inspire and stir the hearts and minds of millions of Indians even today. Accordingly, specific reference should me made to his contribution: (a) in preparing India for the 21st century by ushering in the IT and Telecom revolutions; and (b) in boldly taking on a Corrupt Establishment (Ancien Regime, if you will), which he famously did during the Centennial AICC Session at (then) Bombay.(f) Accordingly, it would be infinitely more appropriate to delete Art. 2 of the existing constitution, and replace it with a short paragraph, like the one produced below:

Amendment AA (to finalize)Article II: OBJECTThe Object of the Indian Youth Congress shall beTo Bring Together, Organize, Educate and Empower the Youth of India, To Fulfill the Goals set forth by Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad, Sardar Vallabbhai Patel, Dr. Bhimrao Babasaheb Ambedkar, and other Founding Fathers of our Great Nation;Of an Ever-stronger, Self-reliant, United, Sovereign, Socialist, Secular and Democratic India; In the Defense, Ceaseless Service and Peaceful Propagation of which Goals, Smt. Indira Gandhi, Shri Rajiv Gandhi and countless other Congresspersons bravely Sacrificed their Lives; And to Prepare them to Fight, Overcome and Eradicate those Forces that seek to endanger and defeat these Sacred Goals, in particular the Forces of Poverty, Ignorance, Corruption and Communalism that seek to divide and destroy us; While devoting themselves fully, tirelessly and selflessly, to Chartering India’s course to Unsurpassable Global Greatness in the brave new century, Which we believe to be India’s inevitable Destiny.

…PREAMBLE (?)We, the Youth, Being fully aware of the blood, toil, tears and sweat spent to keep our Nation sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic,Do hereby dedicate ourselves to proving worthy of the Burden & the Glory passed onto our Generation,By overcoming the forces of hate, poverty, ignorance, corruption and communalism with the weapons of love, development, education, honesty and harmony,For we are young, and we too have a Dream, of an India, strong and eager to take its rightful place at the forefront of nations.

(REVISE COMPLETELY)

Article III: FUNCTIONSThe (Indian) Youth Congress, therefore, for the attainment of the above Object shall endeavor to:(a) Promote National Unity and Integration amongst the Youth of India;(b) Promote opportunities for the development of character, discipline, efficiency, knowledge and a…(c) Impart training in public and political work in close association with the Indian National Congress and the organizations formed by, associated with or recognized by the Congress;(d) Launch and implement social, economic and political programmes at all levels providing scope for its members to participate in programmes of constructive work and activity;(e) Take up such other activities as are necessary for and incidental to the object of the Youth Congress.

Comment:1. It would seem that Art. III suffers from the same ambiguity as Art. II: as such, no precise Agenda is laid down for the Youth Congress.2. The operative words are: (a) ‘promote national unity and integration’; (b) ‘character development’; (c) ‘impart training’; (d) ‘launch and implement social, economic and political programmes’; (e) ‘other necessary and incidental activities’. None of these activities are youth-specific, in the sense that they are not exclusive to either youth-participation or the youth-problematique. Put simply, they could just as easily be performed by the parent body.3. I believe, therefore, that it is essential to define the specific functions that the Youth Congress should undertake to fulfill the Object expounded in Art. II. Ergo, Art. III should be read with, and is in fact the operational-part of, Art. II. Accordingly, the specific Functions have been prescribed to realize the Four Key Aspects of the Object.

Amendment ABArticle III: FUNCTIONS[The Indian Youth Congress, therefore, for the attainment of the above Object shall endeavor:](1) To promote Youth Solidarity by bringing together Indian youth from every part of the world, irrespective of caste, community, region or language, as One Family, thereby emerging as the single most effective organization giving voice to, and solving, the problems and aspirations of India’s Youth;(2) To achieve 100% polling during elections by encouraging citizens to exercise their Right of Vote through a nationwide booth-level network of Rajiv Gandhi Shakti Kendras (RGSKs);(3) To bring about the Economic Empowerment of the Youth, particularly the rural youth, through income generation, asset creation, access to micro-credit, and market integration, by creating a nationwide federation of self-sustainable, autonomous SHGs called Indira Gandhi Svasahayata Samitis (IGSSs);(4) To transform the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) India’s largest Blood Bank, and Eye-donor Agency;(5) To achieve total computer literacy (members should be able to send and receive emails) by 2011;(6) To usher India’s Second Green Revolution by planting more than 50 million fruit-bearing plants every year, and encouraging members to be environmentally friendly; (7) To systematically work towards the realization the Fivefold Objective of Total Rural Employment, Universal Secondary Education, Total In-house Sanitation and Access to Tap Water, Polio Eradication and AIDS Free Society by 2011, through increased active youth participation in NREGA, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Sampoorna Sauchalaya Yojana, Pulse Polio Abhiyan and NACO-regulated programs respectively;(8) To train members in the Democratic Institution-building Process, through the establishment of the Rajiv Gandhi Yuva Prashikshan Kendra at New Delhi, closer collaboration with non-profit social welfare institutions, organization of regular training camps at grassroots level, and free and fair intra-organizational elections from the block-level to the national-level;(9) To take up such other activities as are necessary for and incidental to the Object of the Indian Youth Congress, as defined in Art. II of this Constitution.

Comment:1. The word ‘National Council’ has never really been in usage: most members think of it more in terms of a ‘National Committee’. In this respect, it might be more appropriate to modify the existing terminology in favor of the popular expression. I also feel that the word ‘Council’ is a slightly more pompous than ‘Committee’; the latter, moreover, conveys the elected-nature of the body more forcefully.2. Also, to further reach the grassroot level, which is in fact the primary purpose of the YC organizational structure, it is felt that ‘Booth Committees’ and ‘Rozgar Committees’ be incorporated at Art. VI (g) and (h). Accordingly,

Article VII: TERRITORIAL DIVISION(a) Pradesh Youth Congress Committees shall ordinarily be constituted in the States with headquarters, mentioned as under:

Comment:1. Bombay and Calcutta to be changed to ‘Mumbai’ and ‘Kolkata’. 2. Here, I strongly feel that in accordance with the (amended) Function mentioned above at Art. III (B) (iii) [Recognition and Respect for Emerging Regional & Social Aspirations] and Art. VII (c), (d) and (e), the following PYCs may be added, in addition to the three new states that have since been formed: Chhattisgarh (Raipur), Uttaranchal (Dehradoon), Jharkhand (Ranchi); to these may be added, Telengana (Nizamabad), Vidarbha (Nagpur), while the Maharashtra Unit headquarters may be shifted from Nagpur to Pune. Accordingly,

Comment:1. Here, representation may be given to the Gurkhas at Darjeeling. Accordingly,Amendment AE4. Gurkha Council Darjeeling

(b) The Pradesh Youth Congress Committee may with the previous sanction of the National Council, change its headquarters.

Amendment AF(c) The Pradesh Youth Congress Committee may with the previous sanction of the National Committee, change its headquarters.

(c) The National Council may, after ascertaining the wishes of the Pradesh Youth Congress Committeee or Committees concerned, constitute a new Pradesh, merge any existing Pradeshes into one Pradesh, abolish an existing Pradesh, or assign to a Pradesh, a District, a portion or portions of a District from any other Pradesh.

Amendment AG

(d) The National [Committee may, after ascertaining the wishes of the Pradesh Youth Congress Committee or Committees concerned, constitute a new Pradesh, merge any existing Pradeshes into one Pradesh, abolish an existing Pradesh, or assign to a Pradesh, [Districts, District or part or parts of a District from any other Pradesh].(d) (i) Insofar as the Government of India, or a state government, shall, after due process, create or modify, any territorial boundaries of a Block, District or State, the same shall be incorporated into the Schedule of Pradeshes and Territories mentioned in Art. VII (a) and (b).(e) The National Committee shall have the power to give representation in such a manner as it deems fit to areas in the Union of India as have not been included in the jurisdiction of any PYC/TYC or direct that such an area or part thereof be included in a neighboring Pradesh.

(a) Any Indian Citizen between 18 and 35 years of age who accepts the objects of the Youth Congress and pays the membership fee of Rs. 1/- every year may be enrolled as a primary member of the Youth Congress on filling up the Primary member’s form annexed as form I to this constitution provided that he is not a member of any political party other than the Indian National Congress or of any communal organization which has a separate membership, constitution or programme. The year of membership shall be the calendar year from January to December.

Amendment AHArticle VIII: MEMBERSHIPPrimary Membership(a) Any Indian Citizen, or Non-resident person of Indian origin, between 18 and 35 years of age who accepts the Objects of the Youth Congress and pays a membership fee of Rs. 10/- every year may be enrolled as a primary member of the Youth Congress for that year, on filling up the Membership Form annexed as Form I to this constitution provided that:(i) He/she is not a member of any political party other than the Indian National Congress or of any communal organization which has a separate membership, constitution or program;(ii) The year of membership shall be the calendar year from January 1st to December 31st.(aa) Any person who has, after completion of due process, become a Member of the Indian Youth Congress, shall, ipso facto, become a Primary Member of the Indian National Congress party, and as such, shall adhere to all Rules and Regulations that govern that party.

Active Membership(a) The following categories of persons between 18 and 35 years of age who are primary members are eligible to become active members of the Youth Congress on filling up the Active Member’s form annexed as form II to this constitution and on payment of Rs. 11 every two years.

1. All members who are holding elected office as Congress members in elected bodies, legislatures or Parliament;2. Those who have taken active part in the Congress movement during the period March 1977 to December 1979;3. Those who are primary members for two complete years i.e., 730 days and have participated in the activities prescribed by the National Council from time to time.

Comment:1. Art. VIII (b) (1) leaves it to the discretion of elected INC members in the 27-35 age group to become active IYC members. In my opinion, such a matter cannot be discretionary for them. It is, therefore, necessary to amend this section to ensure that all elected INC members- MPs, MLAs, local body representatives et al- in this age group are compulsorily obligated to become active members and pay the active membership fee of IYC.2. Art. VIII (b) (2) is no longer relevant, and should be omitted.3. Art. VIII (b) (3) stipulates a time frame of ‘two complete years, i.e., 730 days’ to gain active membership; this is unduly long, and should be shortened to one year. The other shortcoming with this section is that the phrase ‘participated in the activities prescribed by the National Council from time to time’ is at best, non-specific. What, for instance, should be minimum extent of that participation, to acquire active membership? Continuing with that argument, is it not possible to incorporate the concept of Graded Membership into the constitution itself, with levels of membership being directly proportional to the extent of participation in IYC activities? In my opinion, there can be no better way to ensure the generic implementation of Rahul Gandhi’s idea of ‘Merit’ in fact being overriding factor in determining a member’s position in the IYC structure. Accordingly, Art VIII (b) should be amended extensively, if not re-written.4. Activity in the Youth Congress should be an incentive for further promotion in the organization; increasing the membership fee for active members defeats that purpose, more so in the case of poorer members. Accordingly, a uniform across-the-board fee of Rs. 10 per year is recommended. Moreover, the collection of fee on a two-yearly basis more often than not means, non-collection. Ergo, fee should be collected on a yearly basis, both from primary as well as active members. 5. There should, I feel, be only one form for membership. Based on the information supplied in this form, a membership level should be awarded (see next Art. IX and Schedule One). This form should be submitted each year by every member, if he/she wishes to continue being an IYC member. This uniform system would ensure greater compliance. One of the reasons why the present system has never been followed is because of its wholly unnecessary complications, which the following Amendments shall seek to both objectify and simplify.

Amendment AIActive Membership(b) The following categories of persons between 18 and 35 years of age, who pay a membership fee of Rs. 10 every year, shall be eligible to become active members, on filling up the Membership Form annexed as Form I to this constitution provided that:1. He/she shall have held previous office(s) in the National Students’ Union of India or any other frontal organization of the Indian National Congress party; 2. He/she has been a primary member for a minimum of one year, i.e., 365 days immediately prior to submitting Form I, during which time he/she shall have attended no less than one-half of the total activities/programs prescribed by the National Committee for that year

Exception:(c) The following categories of persons shall be exempt from submitting Form I in order to become active members of the Youth Congress:(1) Anyone between the ages of 18 to 35 who is holding an elected office(s) as an Indian National Congress party member in elected local bodies, legislatures or Parliament, shall be an active member of the Indian Youth Congress;i. (A) That such a person shall further be required, in his/her capacity as an active member of the Indian Youth Congress, to contribute a sum of Rs. 50 every year from his/her respective salary/allowance to be paid to the “President, District Youth Congress”, “President, Pradesh Youth Congress” or “President, Indian Youth Congress” respectively.

ii. All members of the Mahila Congress of 27 to 35 years of age shall become members of the Indian Youth Congress.

Scrutiny of Membership(2) Both Primary and Active membership shall be scrutinized for the political and personal background of all those who wish to enroll themselves as members. For this purpose, Block, District and Pradesh Scrutiny shall be set up. The list of the primary and active members shall be published by the District Committees, which shall be made available to all members. Objections, if any, will be made in writing to the District Scrutiny Committee. An appeal made against the decision of the District Scrutiny Committee will be made to the Pradesh Scrutiny Committee. Any objections against the decision of the Pradesh Scrutiny Committee will be made to the National Council whose decision shall be final.

Comment:1. Art. IX (a) is silent on the composition of the Scrutiny committees: who shall be its members?2. The mandate of the District, Pradesh and National Scrutiny committees is confined to the scrutiny of ‘political and personal background of all who wish to enroll themselves as members’. A cursory reading of this Article gives the impression that the scrutiny committees are in effect, intelligence/surveillance agencies; a task for which they can hardly be deemed suited. As such, this limited mandate, though necessary, should be expanded to incorporate the gradation of members based on the strictly objective criteria of Performance (see above).3. Parameters would, therefore, have to be defined for measuring performance of active members, in order to enable the scrutiny committee to assign each member, a specific membership-level (ML). The idea, of course, is not only to accord primacy to performance (merit) but also to minimize any scope for subjectivity in the assignment of a member’s ML.4. Accordingly, a ten-fold criterion is suggested that will determine a member’s ML on the basis of the following objective parameters, measured annually:(i) Number of Programs attended [as Percentage of Programs prescribed by the National Committee for that year (see Art. VIII (b) (2))];(ii) Number of Members recruited in that year;(iii) Education;(iv) Occupation (whether self-employed or not);(v) Previously-held positions within the Youth Congress, Seva Dal, Mahila Congress or the National Students’ Union of India;(vi) Level of Training course(s) taken i.e., Grade Certificate Awarded by the Youth Congress Training Centre (see Sch. ON TRAINING CENTRE);(vii) Number of External assignments and duties including deputation on election-campaign duty, appointment as Returning Officers/ Observers during organizational/elections, part of disaster management team etc.;(viii) Number of Communication skills including Oratory, Literary, Technological, and/or Interpersonal;(ix) Organizational contribution including ideological, physical, and/or with other resource(s);(x) Previous electoral record (should have won at least one organizational election, or any other election to local body, legislature or assembly) 5. Furthermore, this Amendment to this Article also postulates, the Creation of a Cadre of committed, full-timer Youth Congress active members: in my opinion, this is necessary for the future survival of any political organization in this country.6. Accordingly, a fixed proportion of the receipts from membership-fees may be set aside for the sustenance of this proposed Cadre, vide amendment to Art. X (see below)

Amendment AKArticle IX: SCRUTINY OF MEMBERSHIP(a) There shall be five-member Scrutiny Committees of the Youth Congress at the Block, District, Pradesh and National levels, comprising the following members:(i) DYC General Secretary in-charge of the block, DYC Secretary in-charge of the block, BYC President, and two other members appointed by the DYC President, provided that at least one member shall be a woman and one shall belong to the Scheduled Tribes/Scheduled Castes, shall constitute the Block Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee; (ii) PYC General Secretary in-charge of the district, PYC Secretary in-charge of the district, DYC President, and two other members appointed by the PYC President, provided that at least one member shall be a woman and one shall belong to the Scheduled Tribes/Scheduled Castes, shall constitute the District Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee;(iii) IYC General Secretary in-charge of the state, IYC Secretary in-charge of the state, PYC President, and three other members appointed by the IYC President, provided that at least one member shall be a woman and one shall belong to the Scheduled Tribes/Scheduled Castes, shall constitute the Pradesh Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee;(iv) AICC General Secretary in-charge of the Indian Youth Congress, AICC Secretary in-charge of the Indian Youth Congress, IYC President, and two other members appointed by the AICC General Secretary in-charge of the IYC, provided that at least one member shall be a woman and one shall belong to the Scheduled Tribes/Scheduled Castes, shall constitute the National Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee (b) The Scrutiny Committee shall have the following functions:(i) Scrutiny of the information supplied in Forms I Art. VIII, to grant, or reject, an applicant’s request for membership of the Youth Congress;(ii) Assignation of membership levels to each member (Art. VIII) on the basis of the Criterion described in Art. IX (c);(iii) Recommendation of disciplinary action, or otherwise, against members, to the respective Executive Committees of the Youth Congress(c) The assignation of Membership level shall be governed by Schedule One of this Constitution.(d) The parameters defined, as well as the scores assigned, in Schedule One may be amended by the National Committee President, after approval of the AICC Secretary in-charge of IYC.(e) Anyone who has duly submitted Form I of Art. VIII, shall have the Right of Appeal provided that:(i) Objections, if any, shall be made in writing to the District Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee. (ii) Any appeal made against the decision of the District Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee shall be made in writing to the Pradesh Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee. (iii) Any objections against the decision of the Pradesh Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee shall be made in writing to the National Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee whose decision shall be final and not liable to be questioned in any Court of Law.(iv) No appeal shall lie before any Scrutiny Committee for a period of more than thirty days from the receipt of that appeal.(f) The complete list of primary and active members of the district, mentioning their respective Membership Levels, shall be published by the District Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee every year, at a date no later than the 15th of January, on the Indian Youth Congress website, and be made available to all members upon payment of cost price of publishing, by the said Committee, should they ask for it.

Amendment ALSCHEDULE ONE:Criterion for Award of Membership Level to be followed by the Scrutiny Committees (Art. IX)

7. Number of times sent outside district for official Youth Congress work such as campaign duty, election observer, relief work etc. 0(0)

1(20)

2 (20)

3(40)

More than 3(50)

8. What communication skill(s) do you have? (multiple) Interpersonal (I am good at convincing people face-to-face)(1)

Oratorical (I am a good public speaker)(2)

Literary (I can write very well)(2)

Technological (I am computer-savvy)(3)

9. How do you contribute to the YC? (multiple) Physical (I participate in YC meetings)(1)

Ideological (I have participated in Debates, Seminars and discussions on YC ideology)(2)

Financial (I contribute money for YC work)(3)

Public Relations (I have good relations with the media)(3)

I have gone to jail for participating in INC/NSUI//YC-led protest(s)(40)

10. Previous electoral record I have not contested an election(0)

I have participated in the party’s campaign.(10)

I have contested but lost(20)

I have contested and won(50)

My family has previously contested and won election(s)(30)

11. Have you been convicted Yes(-40)

No(0)

An appeal is pending against my conviction(-10)

I am out on bail (-20)

12. Rank the following Issues in the order of importance Corruption

Unemployment

Communalism

Social Inequality

Environment

Terrorism

13. Caste

General

OBC(5)

SC(10)

ST(10)

Minority(10)

14. Gender Male

Female(10)

(a) Number in parenthesis indicates the marks to be added/deducted while allotting a member’s ML. (b) Questions 11(a), (c) and (d) shall carry negative marking.(c) Questions 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 10 and 11 relate to a member’s performance, and therefore, carry superlative marks.(d) Question 12 carries no marks, and is merely intended to determine the priority of issues. (e) If a person has ticked options 1(a) or 2(a), he/she may not be an active member, and shall automatically be put in ML-1 category [i.e, the columns shown in Grey].(f) To be considered for the ML-2 category, a person should have ticked 1(b), 2(b) and 6(a) [i.e., the columns shown in Yellow].(g) To be considered for the ML-3 category, a person should have ticked 1(d), 2(c), 3(b), 5(b), 6(b) and 7(1) [i.e., the columns shown in Green].(h) To be considered for the ML-4 (electoral) category, a person should have ticked 8(b), 9(c) and (d), and 10 (c), (d) or (e) [i.e., the columns shown in Orange].(i) To be in the ML-5 category, a person should have ticked options 1(e), 2(e), 5(e), 6(e), 7 (e), 9(b) and 10 (b) [i.e., the columns shown in Red].(j) Based on the above-mentioned Rules, the Range of Scores for assigning MLs shall be as follows: (a) ML-1: upto 100(b) ML-2: upto 500(c) ML-3: upto 1000(d) ML-4: upto 1250(e) ML-5: upto 1800

Renewal of Membership(3) Active membership may be renewal after every two years by filling up membership renewal form, annexed as form III to this Constitution.(4) Those applying for renewal must have participated in atleast 5 programmes prescribed by the National Council during the preceding two years.

Comment:1. From (amended) Art. VIII, it is clear that any primary member wishing to become an active member should attend atleast 50% of the programs prescribed by the National committee for that year: accordingly, Form II mentioned in Art. VIII (b) is, in effect, a kind of renewal form that makes a primary member an active member. This aspect needs to described more clearly in this section on Renewal.2. To increase member’s participation- and also to ensure that active members do not have active membership for two years even if they remain inactive for one entire year- the renewal of memberships should be made a yearly affair. 3. Furthermore, if a primary member doesn’t attend this minimum quota of programs prescribed in (amended Art.) VIII (b), then he forfeits his membership of the Youth Congress; ergo, should he decide to renew his membership, he may do so only by re-filling Form I (and not Form II, for which he should be ineligible, since he has, after all, not attended 50% of the prescribed programs). This too needs to be described more clearly.4. This new policy of annual renewal of memberships, combined with discontinuation of inactive primary members, would, on the whole, ensure that the Youth Congress becomes a leaner but more active organization (as opposed to say, a bulkier but mostly dead-weight one). To put it differently, the emphasis of the new membership policy would be on Quality over Quantity.

Amendment AMArticle IX A: RENEWAL OF MEMBERSHIP(a) Every member of the Indian Youth Congress shall be required to fill Membership Form annexed as Form I to this constitution every year at a date no later than the 15th of December of that year, along with payment of the membership fee of Rs. 10 per year, in order to renew his/her membership for the following year.(b) That failure to do so shall lead to:(i) Forfeiture of his/her membership and(ii) Removal of his/her name from the List published under Art. IX (f).

FORM ONE

INDIAN YOUTH CONGRESS (I)PRIMARY MEMBERSHIP FORM(Under Article VIII of the Constitution)Form No:I wish to be enrolled as a Member of the Indian Youth Congress. I accept Article II of the Youth Congress Constitution.I am not a member of any political party other than the Indian National Congress.I also volunteer to opt for and devote as much time as possible to participate in any activity of programme concerning the Youth Congress.

NameFather’s NameOrHusband’s NamePermanent Place of ResidencePermanent AddressAge___________Occupation_____________________Hobby_______________________________________Will like to participate__________________________(Please mention activities or programmes)

Date_______________Signature or thumb impression of the applicant

(Signature of enroller) (Signature of attesting person)NOTE BY THE SECRETARY OF THE SAMITI/BLOCK/CITY/DISTRICT YOUTH CONGRESS COMMITTEEThe above application of Shri_______has been received in this office with Rs. 1/- as membership fee which has been deposited by this enroller Shri_________.The serial number of the Samiti/Block/City/Distt. Yout Congress Committee Register is_____________.

(Signature of the Secretary)Youth Congress Committee

RECEIPT TO BE GIVEN TO THE APPLICANT Receipt No.Received from Shri______________his membership form alongwith the fee of Rs. 1/-

(Signature of the General Secretary) Block/District

Comment:1. This form is at best, pitiful. It provides very little information about the applicant, and even less about where to best place him in the organizational structure. Moreover, given the bulk of forms filled, it makes it impossible for anyone to actually utilize the information provided in the form, let alone read it. All these shortcomings are sought to be overcome in this (below) electronically-readable form.

Amendment ANFORM ONEXXXXXXXXXXXXINDIAN YOUTH CONGRESS (I)MEMBERSHIP FORM(Under Article VIII of the Constitution)I wish to become a Member of the Indian Youth Congress, believing in its Objects (as described in Art. II of its Constitution), and volunteer to work with the Youth Congress towards attaining those Objectives.

(Signature of Enroller, if any) (Signature of applicant) Name:_________________ Address:_________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ACKNOWLEDGEMENT SLIPReceived from Mr./Ms.___________________________, a sum of Rs. 10, along with Membership Form.

(Signature)Name:_____________

Designation:_____________XXXXXXXXXXXX

EYE DONATION FORM

I voluntarily undertake to donate my eyes after my death…etc.

(Signature)Name:Address:

Overleaf:QUESTIONNAIRE

as above (Schedule One)

Article X: Apportionment of Membership Fee

The membership fees will be apportioned as follows:(a) 20% to the IYC(b) 25% to the PYC(c) 25% to the DYC/City Committee(d) 30% to the Block/ constituency or Taluq Committee

Comment:1. A monthly magazine is proposed (see Sch. Three); accordingly, a fixed proportion of the membership fee should be allocated for the same. Membership fee, therefore, is inclusive of the magazine subscription fee.2. Training fees for courses should be extra, and over and above the membership fee. This, however, should be subsidized, for economically- and socially-challenged members. (SEE Sch. Three)3. IYC will have, at most, a supervisory role. It is proposed, therefore, that the proportion allotted should be increased progressively as one moves down the organizational hierarchy.

8. Revenue from sale of nomination papers (DYCs)- DROs-70% for election expenses; 30% to the DYC.

9. Revenue from sale of nomination papers (BYCs)-BROs- 70% for election expenses; 30% to the BYC.

10. Delegate fee from National Convention-National Committee-100% for the National Committee.

Article XI: BLOCK CONSTITUENCY OR TALUQ YOUTH CONGRESS(a) The Primary Unit of the Youth Congress shall be the Block/Constituency or Taluq Youth Congress with a minimum of 50 members. The Block/Constituency or Taluq Youth Congress shall enroll members and shall be responsible for promoting the objectives of the Youth Congress within its jurisdiction.(b) The Block/Constituency or Taluq Executive Committee of the Youth Congress shall consist of not more than 21 members elected at the General Meeting from amongst the members of the Youth Congress of the Block/Constituency or Taluq Youth Congress.(c) The Block/Constituency or Taluq Executive Committee of the Youth Congress shall have a President, two Vice-Presidents and a Treasurer elected by the Executive Committee from amongst its members and 3 General Secretaries and 3 Joint Secretaries to be nominated by the President from amongst the Executive (Committee) Members.(d) The Block/Constituency or Taluq Committees shall have territorial jurisdiction over the area comprised in respective block, constituency or taluq.(e) The General Meeting of the Block/Constituency or Taluq Youth Congress shall be held annually. The annual report and accounts of the Block/Constituency or Taluq Youth Congress shall be placed before the General Meeting.(f) The Block/Constituency or Taluq Committees may also form Village/Ward Committees. The formation of all such committees, after the preliminary “ad-hoc” stages, would also be governed by provision of sub-articles (a) to (e) above.

Comment:1. The primary unit of the YC can no longer be the Block/Constituency or Taluq Youth Congress; instead the organization should directly operate at the grassroots level, i.e., the Booth and the Panchayat. 2. As more often than not, these two units- i.e., the Booth and Panchayat- are overlapping, it becomes necessary to distinguish them not on the basis of their territorial jurisdiction but on the principle of functionality: accordingly, the Booth committees shall be election-centric, working towards helping the parent body win elections; whereas the Panchayat committees shall be development-centric, functioning principally as employment-generating Self-help groups (SHGs) of a pan-national NGO.3. The functions of both these units, therefore, needs to be precisely outlined.4. The role of the Block/Constituency or Taluq Youth Congress committees shall be to monitor, supervise and report on the activities of the booth and panchayat committees falling within their territorial jurisdiction.

Amendment AQ Article XI: BLOCK CONSTITUENCY OR TALUQ YOUTH CONGRESS AND SUBORDINATE UNITS(a) The Primary Units of the Youth Congress shall be the Booth-level and Panchayat-level Committees of the Youth Congress, to be called “(Name of Booth) Rajiv Gandhi Shakti Kendra” and “(Name of Panchayat) Indira Gandhi Svasahayata (Self-help) Samitis” respectively.(b) The Rajiv Gandhi Shakti Kendras and Indira Gandhi Svasahayata Samitis shall be administered by the Executive Committee of the Block Youth Congress.(c) SECTORS: The President of the Executive Committee of the Block Youth Congress shall further sub-divide each block into eight territorial units to be called ‘Sectors’.

Article XI A: RAJIV GANDHI SHAKTI KENDRA(i) Each Rajiv Gandhi Shakti Kendra shall comprise of no less than 10 members, of which at least two shall be women, to be appointed by the President of the Block Youth Congress committee.(ii) From among the members of each such Kendra, there shall be elected a President, a Treasurer and a Secretary for a term of one year.(iii) Members shall retire from the Kendra upon attaining the age of 40.(iv) The RGSK shall undertake the following activities:(a) Revision of Voter List/ Electoral Roll including addition and deletion of names(b) Data collection including the social composition of each household in polling booth(c) Recruitment of new members(d) Assignation of specific number of households per member to ensure effective polling on polling-days(e) Any other activity decided by the President of the Block Youth Congress committee (v) The President of each Rajiv Gandhi Shakti Kendra shall keep a Register containing the information mentioned in Art. XI A (d) above, which shall be made available for inspection of the RGSK Sanchalak should he/she ask for it.(vi) There shall be a monitoring committee to oversee, and report on, the activities of Shakti Kendras in every Sector, to be called “(Name of Sector) Rajiv Gandhi Shakti Sanchalan Kendra”.(vii) Each Monitoring Committee shall be comprised of the Presidents of the Rajiv Gandhi Shakti Kendras, and headed by a ‘Rajiv Gandhi Shakti Kendra Sanchalak’ (Committee Coordinator) to be appointed by the President of the Block Youth Congress Committee.(viii) Each Rajiv Gandhi Shakti Sanchalak Kendra shall submit two six-monthly Reports every year, one on the 15th of August, and another on the 26th of January, providing a summary of those activities mentioned in Art. XI A (d) above.(ix) The Shakti Kendra Sanchalak shall have the following functions:(a) He/she shall be the Custodian of Records, including Voter Lists and Registers, of the Samitis under his/her jurisdiction(b) He/she shall submit two six-monthly Reports on the activities of the Kendras under his jurisdiction, as well as any other recommendation he/she deems necessary for the functioning of those Kendras, one the 15th of August, and another on the 26th of January, to the President of Block Youth Congress Committee(c) He/she may recommend the removal from office of any member of a Kendra under his/her jurisdiction, to the President of the Block Youth Congress, provided that:(i) Objections against any such decision, if any, shall be made in writing to the District Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee. (ii) Any appeal made against the decision of the District Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee shall be made in writing to the Pradesh Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee. (iii) Any objections against the decision of the Pradesh Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee shall be made in writing to the National Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee whose decision shall be final and not liable to be questioned in any Court of Law.(iv) No appeal shall lie before any Scrutiny Committee for a period of more than thirty days from the receipt of that appeal.

Article XI C: BLOCK/CONSTITUENCY OR TALUQ YOUTH CONGRESS COMMITTEE(a) Elections for the positions of President, two Vice Presidents, four General Secretaries and one Treasurer of the Block Youth Congress committee shall be held every two years, according to a schedule determined by the Central Election Committee.(b) The following members may vote in these elections:(a) Those eligible to vote under Art. XIV C (a)(b) All members of the Rajiv Gandhi Yuva Shakti Kendras and Indira Gandhi Svasahayata Samitis (c) Only those eligible to contest under Art. XIV C (b) shall be eligible to contest in these elections.(d) The President shall nominate 13 members to the Block Youth Congress Executive Committee of whom:(i) Not less than 3 shall be women(ii) Not less than 3 shall be from the Scheduled Tribes/ Scheduled Castes(iii) At least one shall belong to the Minorities(e) The Block Executive Committee of the Youth Congress shall, therefore, consist of not more than 21 members, of whom:(a) 8 shall be elected in accordance with Art. XI C (a) and (b) 13 members shall subsequently be nominated by the President of the Block Youth Congress in accordance with Art. XI C (d)(f) The President of the Block Youth Congress Committee shall allot work to the Office Bearers on the following basis:b. Each Secretary shall be assigned the charge of a Sector, and/or Department/Cellc. Two Secretaries shall be assigned to, and report to, a General Secretaryd. Two General Secretaries shall be assigned to, and report to, a Vice President except:(a) One General Secretary, who shall be designated “Permanent Secretary” reporting directly to the Presidente. Both Vice Presidents shall report to the President(g) The Treasurer shall be in-charge of the funds of the Block Youth Congress and shall keep proper account of all investment, income and expenditure. (h) The Permanent Secretary shall be the Custodian of Records, call meetings, maintain record of all such meetings, and be responsible for the overall functioning of the Head Office.(i) The Block Youth Congress Committee shall have territorial jurisdiction over the whole of the area comprised in that block.(j) All members of the Block Executive Committee of the Youth Congress shall meet every week, on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at any place already decided by them in that block during the previous such weekly meeting.(k) The Agenda of the weekly meetings of the Block Executive Committee of the Youth Congress shall comprise of the following:(a) Identification of local problems and issues(b) Discussion to arrive at an appropriate response to those problems and issues(c) Assessment of the efficacy of the response(d) Assessment of the work of Rajiv Gandhi Shakti Kendras and Indira Gandhi Svasahayata Samitis of that Block, and the issuance of necessary instructions and directives(e) Any other matter that concerns the Objects of this Constitution(l) Minutes of the meeting shall be duly recorded and forwarded to the President of the District Youth Congress no later than on the next working day.(m) The Block Convention of the Youth Congress, consisting of all the members of that Block, shall be held annually at the Block headquarters, on 19th of August every year, i.e., the Birth Anniversary of Shri Rajiv Gandhi.(n) The annual report and accounts of the Block/Constituency or Taluq Youth Congress shall be placed before the Block Convention.(o) The Block/Constituency or Taluq Committees may also form Village/Ward Committees. Provisions of Article XI C would, also govern the formation of all such committees, after the preliminary “ad-hoc” stages.

Article XII: DISTRICT/CITY YOUTH CONGRESS

(a) The District/City Youth Congress Committee shall consist of 3 representatives elected from each Block/Constituency or Taluq Committee by the active members and the Presidents and General Secretaries of the Block/Constituency or Taluq Committees.(b) There shall be an executive committee of the District Youth Congress consisting of all the Presidents of the Block/Constituency or Taluq Committees and ten others who will be elected by the District Youth Congress Committee at the annual District Convention.(c) The District Executive Committee shall have a President, Two Vice-Presidents and a Treasurer elected by the Executive from amongst its members and 4 General Secretaries and 4 Joint Secretaries nominated by the President from the amongst the Executive members.Comment:1. Article XII postulates separate elections for DYC posts; this should in fact be simultaneous with the BYC elections for the simple reason that they share a common electorate.2. Though these elections should ideally be direct, such a process may not be feasible immediately. It can be instituted subsequently, vide an amendment to this section of the constitution. For now, what is proposed is a three-tier election process; wherein the delegates from Blocks vote for the DYC, and delegates from DYCs vote for the PYC.3. There should also be a fixed formula for the number of posts a DYC- and PYC- can have, based of course on the amount of work that can be done. Both under- and over-representation should be avoided.

Amendment ARArticle XII: DISTRICT/CITY YOUTH CONGRESS(a) Elections for the positions of President, Vice Presidents, General Secretaries, Secretaries and one Treasurer of the District Youth Congress committee shall be held every two years, in conjunction with, and simultaneous to, elections to the Block Youth Congress committees, according to a schedule determined by the Central Election Committee.(b) The number of elected positions in an Executive Committee of the District Youth Congress shall be determined in accordance with the following criteria:1. There shall be one position of President2. There shall be one position of Treasurer3. The number of positions of Secretaries shall be the same as the number of Blocks under the jurisdiction of the District Youth Congress. 4. The number of positions of General Secretaries shall be one-half of the number of positions of Secretaries, rounded to the nearest whole number. (Illustration: in case the number of Blocks is an odd number, such as 13, then the number of Secretaries, according to this formula would be 6.5; such a number being unrealistic, the number of Secretaries shall, therefore, be 7)5. The number of positions of Vice-Presidents shall be one-half of the number of positions of General Secretaries, rounded to the nearest whole number

(c) The following members may vote in these elections:(i) All elected officials of the BYCs, i.e., Presidents, Vice Presidents, General Secretaries and Treasurers(d) Every eligible voter shall have one vote each.(e) Only those eligible to contest under Art. XIV C (b) shall be eligible to contest in these elections.(f) The President shall nominate members to the District Youth Congress Executive Committee, whose number shall not exceed one-fourth of the total number of the elected positions as determined by Art. XII (b). Of these:(i) Not less than 1/3rd shall be women(ii) Not less than 1/3rd shall be from the Scheduled Tribes/ Scheduled Castes(iii) At least one shall belong to the Minorities(g) The President of the District Youth Congress Committee shall allot work to the Office Bearers on the following basis:(i) Each Secretary shall be assigned the charge of a Block(ii) Two Secretaries shall be assigned to, and report to, a General Secretary(iii) Two General Secretaries shall be assigned to, and report to, a Vice President except:(a) One General Secretary, who shall be designated “Permanent Secretary” reporting directly to the President(iv) The Vice Presidents shall report to the President(h) The Treasurer shall be in-charge of the funds of the District Youth Congress and shall keep proper account of all investment, income and expenditure. (i) The Permanent Secretary shall be the Custodian of Records, call meetings, maintain record of all such meetings, and be responsible for the overall functioning of the Head Office.(j) The District Youth Congress Committee shall have territorial jurisdiction over all the Block Youth Congress committees in that district.(k) All members of the Executive Committee of the District Youth Congress shall meet every week, on Friday at 5 p.m. at any place already decided by them in that district during the previous such weekly meeting.(l) The Agenda of the weekly meetings of the Block Executive Committee of the Youth Congress shall comprise of the following:(i) Identification of local problems and issues(ii) Discussion to arrive at an appropriate response to those problems and issues(iii) Assessment of the efficacy of the responses(iv) Assessment of the work of Rajiv Gandhi Shakti Kendras, Indira Gandhi Svasahayata Sanchalak Samitis and Block Youth Congress committees of that District, and the issuance of necessary instructions and directives(v) Any other matter that concerns the Objects of this Constitution(m) Minutes of the meeting shall be duly recorded and forwarded to the President of the Pradesh Youth Congress no later than on the next working day.(n) The District Convention of the Youth Congress, consisting of all the members of that district, shall be held annually at the District headquarters, on 19th of November every year, i.e., the Birth Anniversary of Smt. Indira Gandhi.(o) The annual report and accounts of the District Youth Congress shall be placed before the District Convention.

Article XIII: PRADESH/TERRITORIAL YOUTH CONGRESS

(a) The Pradesh/Territorial Committee of the Youth Congress shall consist of three representatives elected by each District Youth Congress Executive Committee and the Presidents of the District Committees.(b) The Pradesh/Territorial Youth Congress Executive shall consist of:1. All the Presidents of District Youth Congress Committees;2. Ten Other members to be elected by the Pradesh Youth Congress Committee;3. Office bearers of the Pradesh Youth Congress Committees(c) The PYC/TYC office-bearers shall normally consist of the President, 3 Vice Presidents, Treasurer elected by the State Executive and 4 General Secretaries and 4 Joint Secretaries to be nominated by the President from amongst the members of the Pradesh Committee. The number of Pradesh/TYC office bearers shall not exceed the number mentioned above. The President of the Indian Youth Congress shall fix the number of the office bearers for each Pradesh from time to time subject to the maximum number as provided herein.(d) The Pradesh/Territorial Convention of the Provincial/Territorial Youth Congress shall be held annually and every active member of the Pradesh/Territorial Youth Congress shall be a delegate to the convention. The report and accounts shall be placed before the Pradesh Convention.(e) There shall be a disciplinary Committee for every PYC/TYC consisting of five members to be nominated by the President of the PYC/TYC. The Disciplinary Committee shall have the power to recommend disciplinary action against any member or Committee within territorial jurisdiction of the PYC/TYC except a District Committee, National Council members, MPs, MLAs or members of local bodies for any breach of discipline or other misconduct. The PYC President shall take such disciplinary action such member or Committee on the report of the Disciplinary as may be…Committee at the earliest opportunity available. Provided that an appeal shall lie against the decision of the PYC/TYC President to the IYC President.

Amendment ASArticle XIII: PRADESH/TERRITORIAL YOUTH CONGRESS(a) Elections for the positions of President, Vice Presidents, General Secretaries, Secretaries and one Treasurer of the Pradesh Youth Congress committee shall be held every two years, in conjunction with, and simultaneous to, elections to the Block Youth Congress and District Youth Congress committees, according to a schedule determined by the Central Election Committee.(b) The number of elected positions in an Executive Committee of the Pradesh Youth Congress shall be determined in accordance with the following criteria.(1) There shall be one position of President(2) There shall be one position of Treasurer(3) The number of positions of Secretaries shall be the same as the number of districts under the jurisdiction of the Pradesh Youth Congress(4) The number of positions of General Secretaries shall be one-half of the number of positions of Secretaries, rounded to the nearest whole number(5) The number of positions of Vice-Presidents shall be one-half of the number of positions of General Secretaries, rounded to the nearest whole number(c) The following members may vote in these elections:(1) All elected officials of DYCs, i.e., Presidents, Vice-Presidents, General Secretaries and Treasurers(d) Every eligible voter shall have one vote each.(e) Only those eligible to contest under Art. XIV C (b) shall contest in these elections.(f) The President shall nominate members to the Pradesh Youth Congress Executive Committee, whose number shall not exceed one-fourth of the total number of the elected positions as determined by Art. XIII (b). Of these:(i) Not less than 1/3rd shall be women(ii) Not less than 1/3rd shall be from the Scheduled Tribes/ Scheduled Castes(iii) At least one shall belong to the Minorities (g) The President of the Pradesh Youth Congress Committee shall allot work to the Office Bearers on the following basis:(i) Each Secretary shall be assigned the charge of a District, and/or Department/Cell(ii) Two Secretaries shall be assigned to, and report to, a General Secretary(iii) Two General Secretaries shall be assigned to, and report to, a Vice President, except:(a) One General Secretary, who shall be designated “Permanent Secretary” reporting directly to the President(iv) The Vice Presidents shall report to the President(h) The Treasurer shall be in-charge of the funds of the Pradesh Youth Congress and shall keep proper account of all investment, income and expenditure. (i) The Permanent Secretary shall be the Custodian of Records, call meetings, maintain record of all such meetings, and be responsible for the overall functioning of the Head Office.(j) The Pradesh Youth Congress Committee shall have territorial jurisdiction over all the District Youth Congress committees in that district.(k) All members of the Executive Committee of the Pradesh Youth Congress shall meet every fifteen days, on the 1st and 15th of every month at any place already decided by them in that state during the previous such meeting.(l) The Agenda of the monthly meetings of the Pradesh Executive Committee of the Youth Congress shall comprise of the following:(i) Identification of local problems and issues(ii) Discussion to arrive at an appropriate response to those problems and issues(iii) Assessment of the efficacy of the responses(iv) Assessment of the work of Rajiv Gandhi Shakti Kendras, Indira Gandhi Svasahayata Samitis, Block and District Youth Congress committees of that state, and the issuance of necessary instructions and directives(v) Any other matter that concerns the Objects of this Constitution(k) Minutes of the meeting shall be duly recorded and forwarded to the President of the Indian Youth Congress no later than on the next working day.(l) The Pradesh Convention of the Youth Congress, consisting of all the members of that state, shall be held annually at the state headquarters, on the 9th of December every year, i.e., the Birth Anniversary of Smt. Sonia Gandhi.(m) The annual report and accounts of the Pradesh Youth Congress shall be placed before the Pradesh Convention.

Article XIV: ELECTION OF PRADESH/TERRITORIAL COMMITTEE AND ITS SUB-ORDINATE COMMITTEE(a) 1. The election of the Youth Congress Committees at all levels shall be conducted according to a schedule fixed by the National Council.2. Only active members of the youth Congress who are Primary members of the India National Congress shall be eligible for election to an office of Pradesh Youth Congress and its subordinate committees. Provided that no office bearer of any Congress Committee shall hold any office in the Youth Congress except when permitted by the National / council to do so. 3. There shall be a Pradesh Returning Officer appointed by the President IVC to conduct the election to the Pradesh Youth Congress Committee. The P.R.O. may at his discretion appoint any Assistant Returning Officer for the purpose of assisting the P.R.O. The P.R.O. after consultation with the Pradesh Youth Congress President shall appoint DRO’S for the conduct of election to the District Committee and the Committees below.

Comment:1. While the provision for holding elections has been incorporated in the IYC constitution, it has, in its present form, failed to conduct either free or fair elections. The principal reason, in my opinion, lies in the fact that the responsibility has been placed on the IYC president. As such, there should be a separate mechanism for conducting elections, and the entire PYCs, DYCs and BYCs should stand dissolved from the announcement of the election schedule.

Amendment ATArticle XIV: ELECTION OF NATIONAL, PRADESH/TERRITORIAL COMMITTEE AND ITS SUB-ORDINATE COMMITTEESArticle XIV A: CENTRAL ELECTION COMMITTEE (CEC)a. Five members shall be nominated by the AICC General Secretary in-charge of the Indian Youth Congress to serve as members of the Central Election Committee (CEC), upon which date the National Committee, PYCs, DYCs and BYCs shall stand dissolved provided that:(i) The Executive Committees shall continue to discharge their duties till such time as a new executive committee has been declared elected;(ii) The Presidents of the Executive Committees of IYC, PYCs, DYCs and BYCs shall hand over all Records related to their tenure in office and preceding tenures, to the CEC, PROs, DROs and BROs respectively; (iii) Any decision taken by the Executive Committees of the IYC, PYCs, DYCs and BYCs shall be subject to confirmation by the CEC, PROs, DROs and BROs respectively.b. The tenure of each CEC member shall be two years.c. Each CEC member shall be assigned the responsibility of holding elections in states, to be specified by the AICC Secretary in-charge of the Indian Youth Congress.d. Each CEC member shall, after due consultation with the AICC Secretary in-charge of IYC, appoint PROs (Pradesh Returning Officers) for every state assigned to him/her.e. Each PRO shall, after due consultation with the concerned CEC member, appoint DROs (District Returning Officers) for every district of that state.f. The DROs shall, after due consultation with the concerned PRO, appoint BROs (Block Returning Officers) for every block of that district.g. The CEC shall publish a Comprehensive Schedule for holding elections to fill the positions of National, Pradesh, District and Block Executive Committees of the Youth Congress.

Article XIV B: FUNCTIONSa. The PROs, DROs and BROs shall be responsible for the following functions in their respective states, districts and blocks:(i) Compilation and publication of electoral rolls in accordance with Art. IX (3) (f) at a date no later than 15th of January(ii) Schedule for the Sale and Receiving of nomination papers at a fee fixed by the CEC, from the 15th to the 20th of January(iii) Date for Scrutiny of nomination papers from the 21st to 24th of January(iv) Prescribing and enforcing a Model Code of Conduct during the election campaign, to be held from 25th to 31st of January(v) Schedule for Holding of electionsExecutive Committee Polling Counting of Votes Declaration of ResultBYC 1st February 4th February 5th FebruaryDYC 7th February 8th February 10th FebruaryPYC 13th February 15th February 16th FebruaryNational Committee To be decided by CEC To be decided by CEC Before 16th March

(vi) Issue of Election Certificate to elected candidates

Article XIV C: RIGHT OF VOTE AND CONTEST(a) Only those members described in Art. VIII (b) and (c) [or Column ‘C’, ‘D’, ‘E’ or ‘F’ of Schedule One] of this constitution shall be eligible to vote in any election conducted by the CEC.(b) Only the following members shall be found eligible to contest any election conducted by the CEC:i. Those described in Art. VIII (b) (1);ii. Those who have been active members, as defined in Art. VIII (b) (2), for a period of no less than two consecutive years, and upon enrollment of a minimum of further 50 primary members as described in Art. VIII (a);iii. Those described in Column ‘D’, ‘E’ or ‘F’ of Schedule One.

Article XIV D: RIGHT OF APPEAL(a) Any member may, in case of a dispute or irregularity, report such matter to the BRO in writing, who shall thereafter give his/her ruling no later than one day from the receipt of the report;(b) Any objection arising out of any ruling of the BRO shall be raised, in writing, to the DRO, who shall thereafter give his/her ruling no later than one day from the receipt of the complaint;(c) Any objection arising out of any ruling of the DRO shall be raised, in writing, to the PRO, who shall thereafter give his/her ruling no later than one day from the receipt of the complaint;(d) Any objection arising out of any ruling of the PRO shall be raised, in writing, to the concerned CEC Member, who shall thereafter bring the issue to the notice of the full CEC for a ruling at a date no later than one day from the receipt of the complaint;(e) The decision of the CEC shall be final and not liable to be questioned in any Court of Law except by the Central Youth Advisory Board.

Article XV: TERMS OF YOUTH CONGRESS COMMITTEE

The tenure of office of every Youth Congress Committee shall ordinarily be two years.

AMENDMENT AT- 1Article XV: TERMS OF YOUTH CONGRESS COMMITTEEThe tenure of office of every Youth Congress Committee shall be two years unless otherwise decided by the Central Youth Advisory Board in accordance with Art. XVIII (c).

Article XVI

NATIONAL COUNCIL

(a) There shall be National Council of the Indian Youth Congress, which shall consist of: 1. The President of the Indian Youth Congress 2. ………………………..3. The Presidents of Pradesh Youth Congress Committees;4. General Secretaries of the Indian Youth Congress; 5. Joint Secretaries of the Indian Youth Congress;6. The Treasurer;7. AICC General Secretary in-charge of the Youth Congress;8. 10 Members elected by the National Convention;9. 21 Associate Members to be nominated by the president of IYC with the approval of the Chairman of Central Advisory Board provided that the age of such associate member does not exceed 40 years; 10. President N.S.U.I. (Special Invitee). (b) (1) The National Council shall formulate the policies and Program of the Indian Youth Congress(2) The National Council shall ordinarily meet once in two months.

PRESIDENT

President of the Indian Youth Congress shall be elected by the members of the National council members of the PYC/TYC Executive Committees and the outgoing President.

GENERAL SECRETARIES

The President shall nominate the General Secretary and other office………..

TREASURER

The Treasurer shall be appointed by National Council and shall be incharge of the funds of the Youth Congress and shall keep proper account of all investment, income and expenditure.

Article XVII(a) The National Council shall have the power: 1. To superintend, direct and control all Pradesh Youth Congress Committees and their subordinate committees as well as the Reception Committee of the National Youth Convention. 2. To take disciplinary action, as and when it may deem fit, against any committees or individual members of Youth Congress. Provided that when the Youth Congress proposes to take disciplinary action against any of its members who is also an officer bearer in the Indian National Congress and or a member of the legislature, it shall make a recommendation to that effect to the appropriate Congress Committee for taking similar action against such member. 3. To frame rules for the proper working of the organization. 4. To issue instructions consistent with the constitution and frame rules in all matters not otherwise provided for. 5. To constitute such committees as it may deem fit. (b) On failure of any committee to function in terms of the Constitution, the National Council may dismiss the existing Youth Congress Committee or any committee subordinate to it and form an ad-hoc committee to carry on the work of the Youth…

Amendment AUArticle XVI: NATIONAL COMMITTEE(a) There shall be National Committee of the Indian Youth Congress, which shall consist of: 1. The President of the Indian Youth Congress, elected by the National Convention;2. 8 Vice Presidents of the Indian Youth Congress, elected by the National Convention;3. 16 General Secretaries of the Indian Youth Congress, elected by the National Convention; 4. 32 Secretaries of the Indian Youth Congress, elected by the National Convention;5. The Treasurer, elected by the National Convention;6. The Presidents of Pradesh Youth Congress Committees;7. AICC General Secretary in-charge of the Indian Youth Congress;8. AICC Secretary in-charge of the Indian Youth Congress;9. Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Yuva Prashikshan Kendra (RGYPK)10. 14 Associate Members to be nominated by the president of IYC with the approval of the Chairman of Central Advisory Board provided that:(a) The age of such associate member does not exceed 40 years; (b) Not less than 1/3rd are women;(c) Not less than 1/3rd are from the Scheduled Tribes/Scheduled Castes(d) At least two shall belong to the Minorities(e) Due representation shall be given to all the Pradeshes11. President N.S.U.I. (Special Invitee). (b) The National Committee shall formulate the policies and programs of the Indian Youth Congress.(c) The National Committee shall meet once in two months at a place and time decided by it.(d) The President of the National Committee shall allot work to Office Bearers on the following basis:(i) Each Secretary shall be assigned the charge of a Pradesh/Territory, and/or Department/Cell(ii) Two Secretaries shall be assigned to, and report to, a General Secretary except(iii) Two General Secretaries shall be assigned, and report, to a Vice President, except:(a) One General Secretary, who shall be designated as “Permanent Secretary” reporting directly to the President(iv) The Vice Presidents shall report to the President(e) The National Youth Congress Committee shall have territorial jurisdiction over the whole of the territory of India.(f) The Treasurer of the National Committee shall be in-charge of the funds of the Youth Congress and shall keep proper account of all investment, income and expenditure. (g) The Permanent Secretary shall be the Custodian of Records, call meetings, maintain record of all such meetings, and be responsible for the overall functioning of the Head Office.

Article XVII(a) The National Committee shall have the power: 1. To superintend, direct and control all Pradesh Youth Congress Committees and their subordinate committees including the National Youth Convention. 2. To take disciplinary action, as and when it may deem fit, against any committees or individual members of Youth Congress. Provided that when the Youth Congress proposes to take disciplinary action against any of its member(s), who is also an officer bearer in the Indian National Congress and/or a member of the legislature, it shall make a recommendation to that effect to the appropriate Congress Committee for taking similar action against such member. 3. To frame rules for the proper working of the organization. 4. To issue instructions consistent with the constitution and frame rules in all matters not otherwise provided for. 5. To constitute such committees as it may deem fit. (b) On failure of any committee to function in terms of the Constitution, the National Committee may dismiss the existing Youth Congress Committee or any committee subordinate to it and form an ad-hoc committee to carry on the work of the Youth Congress provided that:(i) The CEC shall conduct elections to the said Committee within two months from the date of such dismissal, according to Art. XIV of this constitution.

Article XVII A: RAJIV GANDHI YUVA PRASHIKSHAN KENDRAThere shall be a Permanent Training Centre of the Indian Youth Congress called ‘Rajiv Gandhi Yuva Prashikshan Kendra’ (RGYPK) based at New Delhi. It shall be governed by a separate constitution provided in Schedule Three of this constitution.

Article XVII B: DEPARTMENTS(a) The President of the National Committee shall constitute the following:(i) Overseas Friends of the Indian Youth Congress(ii) Sports Department(iii) Department of Cultural Activities(iv) Law Department(v) Department of Professionals (Engineers, Doctors, Scientists, Chartered Accountants and others holding Professional Degrees)(vi) Media Department(vii) Any other Department as decided to be constituted by the National Committee(b) Each Department shall comprise of the following:(i) Chairperson(ii) Members(iii) Convener(c) The Members of the Media Department shall be called “Spokespersons” and shall be required to have obtained due certification from the Department of Propaganda & Media Management [Art. VII (iv) of Schedule Three of IYC Constitution] within two months of their appointment.(d) The National Committee shall, after due consultation with members of a Department, allocate the Annual Budget of that Department. (e) The Chairperson of each Department of the IYC shall: (i) Appoint the Chairperson, Members and Convener of the Department of each PYC, after due consultation with the President of that PYC Executive Committee;(ii) Formulate, implement and monitor Programs and other activities related to the Department in the whole territory of India;(iii) Hold at least one national-level Departmental Convention every year at a Place and Time decided by him/her(f) The Chairperson of each Department of the PYC shall:(i) Appoint the Chairperson, Members and Convener of the Department of each DYC, after due consultation with the President of that DYC Executive Committee;(ii) Formulate, implement and monitor Programs and other activities related to the Department in the whole territory of that state;(iii) Hold at least one state-level Departmental Convention every year at a Place and Time decided by him/her(g) The Chairperson of each Department of the DYC shall:(i) Appoint the Chairperson, Members and Convener of the Department of each BYC, after due consultation with the President of that BYC Executive Committee;(ii) Formulate, implement and monitor Programs and other activities related to the Department in the whole territory of that district;(iii) Hold at least one district-level Departmental Convention every year at a Place and Time decided by him/her(h) Members of each department of the IYC, PYCs and DYCs shall be special invitees to Meetings of the Executive Committees of IYC, PYCs and DYCs respectively, provided that they shall not have the Right of Vote at such meetings.

Article XVIIICENTRAL YOUTH ADVISORY BOARD

Central Youth Advisory Board as formed by its Chairman shall advise the National Council of the Indian Youth Congress. Smt. Indira Gandhi shall be the life chairperson of the Board.

Amendment AVArticle XVIII: CENTRAL YOUTH ADVISORY BOARD(a) Central Youth Advisory Board shall be constituted to advise the National Committee of the Indian Youth Congress. (b) The President of the All India Congress Committee shall be the chairperson of the Board, and shall appoint all its other members. (c) Any Advise of the Central Youth Advisory Board shall be binding on the Indian Youth Congress.

Article XIX

NATIONAL YOUTH CONVENTION

(A) The National Youth Convention of the Youth Congress shall ordinarily be held at the end of two years at a time and place decided upon by the National Council. (B) The convention shall consist of: 1. The President;2. All members of the National Council; 3. Pradesh/Territorial Youth Congress office bearers and Executive members;4. District/City Youth Congress Presidents; 5. Delegates co-opted by the National Council from sections not adequately represented; and 6. Other delegates as decided by the National Council

Amendment AWArticle XIX: NATIONAL YOUTH CONVENTION(A) The National Youth Convention of the Youth Congress shall be held at the end of two years, at a date no later than one month from the declaration of election results of the PYCs and subordinate committees by the CEC.(B) The (outgoing) National Committee shall determine the Place, Schedule and Agenda of the National Convention. (C) The convention shall consist of the following persons: 1. All members of the (outgoing) National Committee of the Indian Youth Congress;2. All elected office bearers of PYCs, DYCs and BYCs Executive Committees;3. PROs, DROs and BROs appointed by the CEC;4. Nominated members of Executive Committees;5. Members of Departments of IYC, PYCs and DYCs;6. All elected members of the INC party in local self-bodies, state legislatures and Parliament between the ages 18 to 40; 7. All members of AICC and PCCs between the ages 18 to 40; 8. Other non-delegates, invited by the National Committee(D) The President and Treasurer of the (outgoing) National Committee shall place the Report and Accounts of the National Committee before the National Convention.(E) Those persons mentioned in Art. (C) (1) and (2) above shall be called ‘Delegates’ of the National Convention.(F) Elections for the positions of President, Treasurer, 8 Vice Presidents, 16 General Secretaries and 32 Secretaries shall be held during the National Convention, on the basis of a Schedule determined by the CEC.(G) Only Delegates attending the National Convention shall be eligible to vote in these elections.(H) Each delegate shall have one vote each.(I) Voting shall be by secret ballot.(J) Any objection pertaining to the election process shall be raised, in writing, before the CEC, whose decision shall be final and not liable to be questioned in any Court of Law.(K) Upon declaration of the result by the CEC, the preexisting National Committee shall cease to hold office.(L) Any amendments, changes and alterations made in this Constitution according to Art. XXII shall be placed before the National Convention for ratification. (M) The National Convention shall end with the Address of the newly elected President of the National Committee.

Article XX

TRANSITIONAL PROVISION

The President and the office bearers at the time of the adoption of this Constitution shall remain in office and continue to function until the new President and office bearers are elected and the various authorities constituted under this Constitution.

Article XXI

(A) The quorum for the meeting of all committees of the Indian Youth Congress shall be ¼ of the number of members of the committee. For the purpose of voting, the quorum shall be ½ of the elected members of the committee. (B) Any question or dispute arising under the Constitution with regard to its provisions, contents, interpretation or the procedure laid down therein, between any member and any committee or committees inter-alia shall be determined by the National Council. The decision of the National Council shall be final and binding on all the members and committees of the Indian Youth Congress and shall not be liable to be questioned by any of them in a Court of Law.(C) The elected & ex-officio members of the National Council shall alone have the right to vote in the National Council. (D) A meeting of any committee may be requisitioned by a written requisition signed by at least 1/3 of the total number of committee members. On receipt of such requisition the Secretary of the Committee shall call a meeting of the committee within one week. On failure to call a requisitioned meeting by the secretary, any two requisitioners may call the same by signing the usual notice. (E) A motion of no confidence may be moved against the President of any committee by a resolution signed by not less than ½ of the total elected and ex-officio members of the respective committees. The resolution shall stand passed if voted by 2/3 majority of the total of the elected members and ratified by the Pradesh Committee in the case of Block Constituency or Taluq Committees.

AMENDMENT AXArticle XXI: MEETINGSa. The quorum for the meeting of all committees of the Indian Youth Congress shall be 1/4th of the number of members of the committee. For the purpose of voting, the quorum shall be ½ of the elected members of the committee.b. If a member is absent from a meeting, penalties shall be imposed, unless the member has taken prior permission from the President of the Executive Committee, or due to any other reasonable indisposition. c. Any question or dispute arising under the Constitution with regard to its provisions, contents, interpretation or the procedure laid down therein, between any members and/or any committee or committees inter-alia shall be determined by the National Committee. The decision of the National Committee shall be final and binding on all the members and committees of the Indian Youth Congress and shall not be liable to be questioned by any of them in any Court of Law.d. The elected members of the National Committee shall alone have the right to vote in the National Committee. e. A meeting of any committee may be requisitioned by a written requisition signed by at least 1/3rd of the total number of committee members. On receipt of such requisition the Permanent Secretary of the Committee shall call a meeting of the committee within one week. On failure to call a requisitioned meeting by the secretary, any two of those who have requisitioned the meeting may call the same by signing the usual notice. f. A motion of no confidence may be moved against the President, or any other elected office bearer, of any committee by a resolution signed by not less than ½ of the total elected members of the respective committees. The resolution shall stand passed if voted by 2/3rd majority of the total of the elected members and ratified by the District Committee in the case of Block/Constituency or Taluq Committees, or by the Pradesh Committee in the case of District/City Committees, or by the National Committee in the case of Pradesh/Territorial Committees.

Article XXII

CHANGES IN THE CONSTITUTION

This Constitution can be amended, altered or added to only by the Working Committee of Indian Congress. The National Council shall, however, have authority, except in regard to Article I & II, to amend, alter or add to the Constitution when the National Youth Convention is not in session, provided that no such addition, alteration or amendment shall be made by the National Council except by a majority of two-thirds of the members present and voting at a meeting held specially for this purpose after due notice of the proposed changes have been given to each member, at least one month prior to the date of such a meeting. The changes made by the National Council shall be put before the next session of the National Youth Convention for ratification but may come into operation even before ratification from such date as may be prescribed by the National Council.

Provided, however, that no amendment shall come into force and become operative until and unless it is approved by the Working Committee of the Indian National Congress.

Article I: NAMEThe name of the Self Help Group (SHG) shall be the “Indira Gandhi Svasahayata Samiti (Self Help Group)” (IGSS).

Article II: OBJECTThe object of the Indira Gandhi Svasahayata Samiti (Self Help Group) shall be to make its members Politically Conscious, Socially Responsible and Financially Independent. In furtherance of this Object, the IGSS shall have the following long-term and short-term Goals:

A. Long-term Goals:1. Each SHG should aim to have a total savings-deposit of Rs. 10,00,000 within 15 years of its formation.2. Every SHG member should have ‘Pakka Makan’ within 10 years of the group’s formation.3. Every SHG member’s house should have access to tap water within 10 years of the group’s formation.4. Every SHG member’s family should have an earning of Rs. 200,000 within 15 years of the group’s formation.5. Every SHG member should have 50 fruit-bearing plants in his/her house, or in his/her family/community land within 10 years of the group’s formation.

B. Short-term Goals:1. Every SHG member should have proper sanitation facility (toilet) in his/her house within 2 years of group’s formation.2. Every SHG member should subscribe to family planning. If the member is unmarried, or does not have more than two children, then his/her family should compulsorily adopt family planning.3. Every SHG member should plant at least 5 fruit-bearing plants such as Papaya, Guava, Drumsticks, Lemon, Mango, Cheeku etc., in his/her house, or family/community land every year.4. Every SHG member should adopt animal husbandry within the year.5. Every SHG member should compulsorily undertake to send his/her daughter and son to school.6. Every SHG member should be able to read and write within the year.7. In case of pregnancy of any SHG member, she shall register her name with the local primary health centre/aanganwadi, and shall compulsorily follow the proper vaccination and institutional delivery schedule.8. The SHG shall actively participate in the Pulse Polio Abhiyan, Health Camps and other government-sponsored social and health schemes.9. The SHG shall adopt at least one Income Generation Activity within the year of its formation.10. The SHG shall compulsorily work for NASHABANDI and SHARAB-BANDI etc.11. The SHG shall actively campaign to stop Exploitation of Women and other weaker sections of the village.12. Every SHG member shall, without fail, participate in the every Gram Sabha of the village.13. The SHG shall monitor and ensure proper implementation of all the government schemes in the village, particularly NREGA.14. Every SHG member shall ensure that he/she and his/her Family abide by the marriage laws, particularly those pertaining to the minimum age of marriage and dowry. 15. The SHG shall promote the participation of women in Panchayati Raj Institution, and work towards forming Common Interest Groups (CIGs) comprising adolescent women of the village.16. Every SHG member shall exercise his/her Right of Vote in the every election.

Article III: FUNCTIONSTo realize the aforementioned Object, the IGSS shall adhere to the propagation of the following functions:(i) To develop leadership qualities in members(ii) To establish a forum for building public opinion (iii) To create social consciousness(iv) To work towards Universal Secondary Education (v) To provide Credit support for consumption, income generation and asset creation(vi) To build a strong working relationship with banking institutions, Government departments and other non-governmental institutions(vii) To bring about a gradual change in the status of members, from workers to owners(viii) To lobby for, and actively participate in, all programs/projects aimed at rural development(ix) To build & strengthen local representative bodies(x) To upgrade skills of members through trainings(xi) To promote & protect natural resources(xii) To participate in disaster management(xiii) To promote a Culture of Democracy among members through the formation of self-regulatory, income-generating, autonomous bodies based on flexible functioning and responsive behavior(xiv) To make members Financially Responsible

Article IV: COMPOSITIONIn every panchayat, the Executive Committee of the Block Youth Congress shall constitute at least two sustainable self-help groups (SHG hereafter) called “(Name of Panchayat/Ward) Indira Gandhi Svasahayata (Self-help) Samiti”, of which:(a) One shall comprise of no less than 10 male beneficiaries (but not more than 20), and (b) One shall comprise of no less than 10 female beneficiaries (but not more than 20).

Article V: MEMBERSHIP(a) The following considerations shall be applicable in the selection of SHG beneficiaries:(i) Age of members: Members should be above 18 years of age(ii) Beneficiaries should belong to the same “natural village” or locality to facilitate regular meetings promote affinity between members(iii) Beneficiaries should share a common socio-economic affinity(iv) Beneficiaries should have the same income level to eliminate any possibility of certain members dominating the SHG(v) Beneficiaries should not belong to the same household

(b) Beneficiaries should be able to contribute a sum of no less than Rs. 10 per month as saving(c) Beneficiaries shall retire from the SHG upon attaining the age of 40.(d) Membership Fee: The Executive Committee of the Block Youth Congress shall determine the amount for each Sector, taking into account the local socio-economic condition. The membership fee shall be not refundable.(e) Cancellation of Membership: The membership of the SHG may be cancelled on the following ground:(i) Resignation of the member(ii) Non-compliance with penalties imposed by the SHG(iii) No-confidence motion against a member passed by 2/3rd majority(iv) Removal by the IGSS Sanchalak, according to procedure mentioned in Art. VIII B (c)

Article VI: ELECTIONa. From among the beneficiaries of each SHG, there shall be elected a President, a Treasurer and a Secretary, who shall jointly be referred to as the SHG’s Representatives, for a term of three months. b. Rotation of Representatives: The aforementioned positions must be rotated every three months to enhance leadership quality among members.c. The Representatives shall be responsible for the maintenance of Registers, reporting and auditing.d. The election shall be subject to confirmation by the IGSS Sanchalak.

Article V: REGISTRATION(a) The SHG members shall meet thereafter to adopt this Constitution, and pass a Resolution to that effect, after which process, the SHG shall be duly registered with the District Collectorate, or any other subordinate office delegated for the purpose of registration of SHGs.

Article VI: BANK-LINKAGE FOR INCOME GENERATION(a) The SHG shall, after its Registration as described in Art. V of this constitution, open an account in the local Village Cooperative Bank, or any other bank determined by the IGSS Sanchalak, in the name of the SHG.(b) Each SHG member shall thereafter be required to make a minimum deposit of Rs. 10 per month.(c) Upon completion of six months, the SHG shall make a written application seeking loan for an amount that is not less than four times the total savings of the SHG from the aforementioned bank, for any economically viable, income generating project such as operating a Rations shop, hen/pig-farming, broom making, fishery, minor forest produce collection and value addition, sale of clothes and other goods, or any other activity the members may determine through consensus.(d) If required, every SHG member may seek loans from the SHG itself at a rate of interest determined by the SHG based on prevalent market rates, and at no cost should they seek loan from moneylenders.(e) Records of all financial transactions of the SHG, including savings, income and investments, as well as intra-loaning between SHG members shall be maintained by the Treasurer in a separate Accounts & Savings Register.(f) The President shall be the co-signatory of the Accounts & Savings Register and all financial transactions conducted by cheques.(g) The Treasurer of the SHG shall make the Accounts & Savings Register available to the IGSS Sanchalak for inspection whenever the latter asks for it.Article XVI A: RULES FOR FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS(a) Savings: The IGSS Sanchalak shall determine, after consultation with the SHG members, a minimum amount of savings-deposit, after which withdrawal by the SHG may be permitted. (b) Loans: The IGSS Sanchalak shall determine, after consultation with SHG members, how loans shall be prioritized, and the rate of interest to be charged on such loans provided that this rate does not exceed prevalent market rates. (c) Use of Cheques:i. All transactions of amounts larger than Rs. 500/- shall be done through cheque, not cash, to enable better accountability. ii. Cheques shall be written by the President in the presence of all members to ensure transparency in financial matters.iii. The Treasurer and President shall be co-signatories of all cheques.(d) All cash collections shall be directly deposited in the bank, no later than two working days from the collection of such cash, to reduce the possibility of theft and also to reduce the possibility of member themselves mishandling the cash. (e) All financial transaction shall be done only at the meeting.(f) Members shall take turns to deposit the collection amount in the bank so that this responsibility does not lie heavy on the shoulders of a few people.(g) Maintenance of Accounts: The Treasurer shall maintain all accounts, and members shall determine how much they shall pay him/her, and how they will monitor him/her.(i) Penalties: Fines shall be fixed for overdue loans, for defaulters and those who break norms established by the SHG, such as smoking in meetings, drinking etc.(j) Interest on Savings: Members shall decide whether and how interest on savings/ dividends shall be paid and distributed provided that:10% of the total profits of the IGSS shall be paid by cheque to the “IGSS Sanchalak” at the close of every financial year, in accordance with Art. X (3) of the Constitution of the Indian Youth Congress.(k) Group Audit: The IGSS Sanchalak shall determine the audit mechanism for the SHGs, to be done annually, and members shall review the audit findings.

Article VII: MEETINGS(i) All members of the SHG shall meet at least once every week at a fixed place and time, to ensure discipline.(ii) Absence from Meetings: If a member is absent from a meeting, penalties shall be imposed, unless the member has taken prior permission from the SHG President, or has an emergency at home.(iii) Late Attendance: In case of late attendance, penalties shall be imposed.(iv) Members cannot leave the meeting midway, unless the member has taken prior permission, or there is an emergency at home.(v) If any woman-member is due for delivery, the group shall automatically sanction leave.(vi) Quorum: As a rule, 75% of the members must be present for decisions to be taken in the SHG. Incase of less than 75% attendance, they may conduct the meeting, collect savings, repayment and interest, but no Resolution shall be passed.(vii) The President shall chair the meeting.(viii) The Agenda of these Meetings shall be to take decisions and pass Resolutions with a view to furthering the Object described in Art. II of Schedule Two.

Article VII A: REGISTERS(a) The SHG shall maintain three Registers, as follows:(1) ACCOUNTS & SAVINGS REGISTER, as described in Art. VI above(2) TRAINING REGISTER, as described in Art. IX (d) below(3) MEETING REGISTER containing the following information:i. Name of SHG members attending the meetingii. Minutes of matters discussed and issues raised at the meetingiii. Resolutions passed, if any

(b) The Treasurer shall maintain the Accounts & Savings Register.(c) The Secretary shall maintain the Training Register and the Meeting Register.(d) All entries in the Accounts & Savings Register, the Training Register and the Meeting Register shall be counter-signed by the President.(e) The aforementioned Registers shall be made available to the IGSS Sanchalak for inspection whenever the latter asks for them.(f) Upon completion of 6 months, these Registers shall be deposited with the IGSS Sanchalak.

Article VIII: FEDERATION(a) The President of the Executive Committee of the Block Youth Congress shall constitute eight Sectors in that Block in accordance with Art. XI (c) of the IYC Constitution.(b) There shall be a monitoring committee to oversee, and report on, the activities of all SHGs in a Sector, to be called “(Name of Sector) Indira Gandhi Svasahayata (Self-help) Sanchalan (Monitoring) Samiti”.(c) All SHGs in the Sector shall, upon their formation, automatically form a Federation by becoming members of “(Name of Sector) Indira Gandhi Svasahayata (Self-help) Sanchalan (Monitoring) Samiti”.(d) Each Monitoring Committee shall be headed by an ‘Indira Gandhi Svasahayata Samiti (IGSS) Sanchalak’ (Committee Coordinator) to be appointed by the President of the Block Youth Congress Committee.(e) All Presidents of SHGs in the Sector shall become ex-officio members of the “(Name of Sector) Indira Gandhi Svasahayata (Self-help) Sanchalan (Monitoring) Samiti”.

Article VIII B: FUNCTIONS OF SANCHALAKThe IGSS Sanchalak shall have the following functions:(a) He/she shall be the Custodian of Records, including Registers, of the Samitis under his/her jurisdiction(b) He/she shall submit two six-monthly Reports on the activities of the Samitis under his jurisdiction, as well as any other recommendation he/she deems necessary for the functioning of those Samitis, on the 15th of August, and another on the 26th of January, to the President of Block Youth Congress Committee(c) He/she may recommend the removal from office of any member of a Samiti under his/her jurisdiction, to the President of the Block Youth Congress, provided that:(i) Objections against any such decision, if any, shall be made in writing to the District Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee. (ii) Any appeal made against the decision of the District Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee shall be made in writing to the Pradesh Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee. (iii) Any objections against the decision of the Pradesh Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee shall be made in writing to the National Youth Congress Scrutiny Committee whose decision shall be final.(iv) No appeal shall lie before any Scrutiny Committee for a period of more than thirty days from the receipt of that appeal.

Article IX: TRAINING(a) The IGSS Sanchalak shall conduct Training Meetings for SHG members at least once every six months.(b) All the members shall be present during training. Penalties are imposed for absentees.(c) Book writers and representatives shall be given training specifically designed for them.(d) Book writer should document all the proceedings of the training in a separate Training Register.(e) Summary of training topics shall be reviewed at the weekly SHG meetings.

Article III: OBJECTThe object of the RGYPK shall be to train IYC members to attain the Objects mentioned in Art. II of this Constitution.

Article IV: GOVERNING COUNCILThe following persons shall be Members of the Governing Council of the RGYPK:i. AICC General Secretary in-charge of the Indian Youth Congressii. AICC Secretary in-charge of the Indian Youth Congressiii. President of All India Congress Seva Daliv. President of All India Mahila Congressv. President of the Indian Youth Congress

Article V: DIRECTOR(i) The Governing Council shall appoint a full-time Director of the RGYPK.(ii) The tenure of the Director shall be four years.(iii) The Governing Council of RGYPK shall determine the salary of the Director.

Article VI: BURSAR(i) The Governing Council shall appoint a full-time Bursar of the RGYPK.(ii) The tenure of the Bursar shall be four years.(iii) The Bursar shall administer the finances of the RGYPK, in accordance with the Budgetary Provisions mentioned in Art. X of Schedule III.(iv) The Governing Council of RGYPK shall determine the salary of the Director.

Article VII: DEPARTMENTSThe RGYPK shall have the following five departments:(i) Congress Ideology and IYC Constitution(ii) Party History(iii) Electioneering & campaign methodology(iv) Media management(v) Satyagraha & field-work (with special reference to disaster management) Article VIII: HODs(i) The Director shall appoint a Head of Department (HOD) to head each of the aforementioned five departments. (ii) The tenure of each HOD shall be three years.(iii) The Governing Council of RGYPK shall determine the salary of the HODs.

Article IX: VISITING FACULTYThe RGYPK shall have a Visiting Faculty comprising academics, AICC members, parliamentarians and other eminent persons from various fields. Article X: BUDGET(i) A fixed proportion of the total Budget of the Indian Youth Congress shall be set-aside for the RGYPK according to Art. X (b) of the Constitution. (ii) Revenues mentioned in Art. XV (b) of Schedule Three of this constitution shall constitute part of the overall Budget of the RGYPK.(iii) Revenues mentioned in Art. XVIII (D) (iii) and E (ii) of Schedule Three of this constitution shall constitute part of the overall Budget of the RGYPK.(iv) The Bursar shall administer the finances of the RGYPK according to the Annual Budget decided by the Governing Council. Article XI: COURSES(a) The HODs shall prescribe Specific courses for each of the four Membership Levels.(b) Each course shall not exceed a period of more than 1 month.(c) Refresher/crash courses of shorter durations may also be prescribed.

Article XII: AWARD OF CERTIFICATESThe Director shall award Certificates to successful trainees after the completion of each course level.Article XIII: RECORDS The RGYPK shall maintain a Record of all trainees and the certificates awarded to them, to be made available to the National Committee upon asking.ARTICLE XIV: TRAINEES(a) All Members of the Executive Committees of PYCs, DYCs and BYCs shall be required to complete RGYPK training courses within one year of their election. (b) Other members, should they so wish, may also enroll for courses offered by the RGYPK upon payment of course fee in accordance with Art. XV (a).Article XV: COURSE FEE(a) A fee shall be charged from the trainees for each course, as determined by the Governing Council, provided that:(i) The Director shall, in the event that the trainee is unable to pay the fee, waive, in part or wholly, the course fee.(b) The Bursar shall collect all revenues from course fees. This shall be part of the RGYPK Budget.

Article XVI: COLLABORATIONThe RGYPK should endeavor to have working collaborations with non-profit social organizations [like Sabarmati Ashram, Rama Krishna Mission (RKM), Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF)] etc.Article XVII: FIELD TRAINING(a) The RGYPK shall provide Field training (urban and rural) to the trainees.(b) The RGYPK shall enable trainees to gain on-hand experience of working as ‘interns’ at the headquarters of the Indian Youth Congress, Seva Dal, Mahila Congress, and the All India Congress Committee.(c) The RGYPK shall also conduct outstation “training camps”.Article XVIII: MONTHLY MAGAZINEA. NAMEThe RGYPK shall undertake the publication of a monthly magazine called “Yuva…”B. EDITIONS(i) The magazine shall be Bilingual, having separate Hindi and English editions.(ii) An online edition of the magazine shall also be published.C. EDITORIAL BOARDThe Editorial Board shall comprise the following members:i. Director of RGYPKii. HODs of RGYPKiii. Six other members nominated by the President of Indian Youth Congress, of which:a. One shall be Head of the Marketing Departmentb. One shall be Head of the Circulation Departmentc. One shall be the editor of the English editiond. One shall be the editor of the Hindi editione. One shall be the editor of the Rural editionf. One shall be the editor of the Online editionD. SUBSCRIPTION (i) All members contesting for positions of Executive Committee members of the IYC, PYCs, DYCs and BYCs shall compulsorily subscribe to this magazine. A biannual subscription fee, as determined by the National Committee, shall be included in the cost of the nomination papers.(ii) Any other person may subscribe to the magazine on payment of the subscription fee.(iii) The Head of Circulation shall collect all revenues from subscription fees, which shall constitute part of the RGYPK Budget (Art. X of Schedule Three).E. ADVERTISEMENTS(i) Advertisement revenues shall supplement the revenue obtained from subscription fees.(ii) The Head of Marketing shall collect all revenues from advertisements, which shall constitute part of the RGYPK Budget (Art. X of Schedule Three).F. SALARIES(i) The Heads of Marketing and Circulation shall report to the Bursar of the RGYPK. (ii) The salary of persons mentioned in Art. XVIII C (iii) shall be determined by the Governing Council of the RGYPK, and paid by the Bursar.G. STATE EDITIONSPresidents of Executive Committees of PYCs may publish separate editions of the magazine in their respective languages, after duly constituting an editorial board as described in Art. XVIII (d) (iii) aboveH. CONTENT(i) The Focus of the magazine shall be on youth issues, with regular contributions from PYCs. (ii) The magazine shall contain separate sections on popular culture, youth politics, sports and technology to make it entertaining as well as informative.

PROVISIONAL WHITE PAPER ON IYC MEDIA DEPARTMENT (added 18th February 2009)Comment: Given the importance of the Media in contemporary youth politics, the following proposals are made for revamping the IYC Media Department. The three-fold idea is to:(a) Integrate various levels of the IYC and journalists in the 18-35 age group into a single digital network (via emails) (b) Relaunch our magazines, Young March and Yuva Pragati with online editions of the same, while also having a concrete growth strategy in place(c) Make Media Management cost-effective on a long-term basis.

A. STRUCTURE1. The Media Department of the IYC shall comprise of the following components:a. In-charge General Secretary of Media Department at the:i. IYC level (1st Phase)ii. PYC level (1st Phase)b. Panel of Spokespersons at the:i. IYC level (1st Phase): not more than 4ii. PYC level (1st Phase): at least 1 from each Divisioniii. DYC level (1st Phase): not more than 3iv. BYC level (2nd Phase)c. A bilingual IYC monthly magazine, “Young March” (English) and “Yuva Pragati” (Hindi) d. A web edition of the magazine to be incorporated into the IYC website (http://www.iyc.in)e. IYC Media Centre

B. MAGAZINE: FEASIBILITY STUDY1. REGISTRATION & TITLE: As the titles “Yuva Pragati” and “Youth March” were registered with the Registrar of Newspapers of India (RNI) in the mid-1970s (Old Registration No.: 25542) under the presidentship of Smt. Ambika Soni with Shri Bansilal Gandhi as editor, these publications would be eligible to obtain newsprint paper at subsidized cost, which would, I believe, reduce our total cost of publication substantially.2. Accordingly, I propose to re-launch these two Magazines.3. The Printing details of the Magazines would be as follows:

4. It shall be our endeavor to run the magazine on a profit-making basis: costs must not exceed revenue, and the profits should be used to facilitate and promote the working of the IYC Media Centre.

5. SUBSCRIPTION:a. The Circulation Manager shall oversee subscription.b. All IYC, PYC, DYC and BYC office-bearers shall compulsorily subscribe to the Magazine. This aspect should also be included in the Amended IYC Constitution.c. Enrollment by Office-bearers:i. Each PYC office-bearer shall be asked to enroll at least 10 new subscribers (who are not office-bearers) every year; ii. Each DYC office-bearer shall enroll 5 new subscribers every year;iii. Each BYC office-bearer shall enroll 2 new subscribers every year. The above aspect may also be incorporated into the Amended IYC Constitution.d. An annual subscription fee of Rs. 200 shall be charged. e. The GM, Circulation, shall maintain a Computerized Database of all subscribers.f. Plan of Growth: An estimated 67,600 office-bearers shall be subscribers. They shall enroll an estimated 200,000 new subscribers every year.g. Revenue from Subscription: The annual revenue generated from the Magazine would be:i. Rs. 13,520,000 from office-bearers ii. Rs. 40,000,000 from new subscribers every year

6. ADVERTISEMENTS:a. The Marketing manager shall be responsible for Advertisements.b. Revenue from Advertisements:

The minimum monthly revenue from advertisements would be Rs. 350,000. The minimum annual revenue from advertisements will therefore be Rs. 4,200,000 (forty two lakhs).

7. The total revenue from the Magazine would be Rs. 17,720,000 (one crore seventy seven lakhs and twenty thousand).

8. COSTS:i. The Cost of Printing a magazine of the above-mentioned specifications would be: Rs. 9 per copy. The total monthly cost of printing 67,600 copies would be Rs. 608,400. The annual cost of printing would therefore be Rs. 7,300,800.ii. Additional Costs would be:

9. PROFIT:a. The Net Annual Operating Profit would therefore be Rs. 8,981,600 (eighty nine lakhs eighty one thousand and six hundred). The net monthly operating profit will be Rs. 748,466.67.b. Among other things, this profit shall be used at the discretion of the Editorial Board towards:i. Running a web-edition of the magazine, ii. Publicizing the magazine among the youth, iii. Operating cost of the IYC Media Centre, iv. Cultivation of journalists, and v. Other activities undertaken by the IYC Media Department etc. as may be specified by the Editorial Board.

g. BOARD OF MANAGEMENT: In addition, there shall be a Board of Management in-charge of the day-to-day working of the Magazine comprising of:i. IYC General Secretary in-charge of Media Departmentii. Executive Editor, Yuva Pragatiiii. Executive Editor, Young Marchiv. Editor of web-magazinev. Marketing Managervi. Circulation ManagerAll members of the Board of Management shall be required to be stationed at Delhi and work out of the IYC Media Centre.

h. INTERNSHIPS: The Magazine shall provide internships to graduating journalists, preferably from reputed schools/colleges of mass-communication. (Circulars seeking Interns would be sent to these institutes.)

C. IYC MEDIA CENTRE:

1. INFRASTRUCTURE: i. A Media Centre to accommodate at least 8 persons at a timeii. A Conference Room with PA system, background with IYC logo and pictures of party leaders, and sitting arrangements to conduct press briefingsiii. A dedicated bilingual typist to type press-releasesiv. A camera to take photographs of IYC functions, to be supplied to the mediav. The media centre shall be equipped with a landline telephone connection, two computers, wi-fi internet connectivity and all-in-one printer-scanner-facsimile and a coffee-machine2. This centre should become a meeting point for all journalists by encouraging them to make use of the facilities provided therein.

3. PYC MEDIA CENTRES: PYCs should be encouraged to form Media Centres at state-headquarters.

4. MODUS OPERANDI:

A. E-LINKING IYC NATIONWIDE:i. The IYC and PYC General Secretaries in-charge of Media shall supervise the work of all Spokespersons under them.ii. The IYC Media Centre shall routinely issue emails of its press briefings (statements etc.) to all PYC General Secretaries in-charge of Media to enable them to raise the issues at the PYC and DYC levels.iii. Likewise, the PYC General Secretaries in-charge of Media shall email their press briefings (including published clippings) to the IYC Media Centre before 1330 hours everyday to enable the latter to raise state- and district-level issues at the national level.iv. The PYC General Secretaries in-charge of Media shall issue and obtain emails of press-briefings from their respective DYC General Secretaries in-charge of Media, and forward them to the IYC Media Centre.v. All such press-briefings and clippings shall simultaneously be posted on the IYC website, which shall be kept updated in realtime.vi. These press-briefings may also be used as an input for “Young March” and “Yuva Pragati”.

B. COMPILATION OF DATABASE OF YOUNG JOURNALISTS: i. We intend to compile a Database of all journalists- electronic, digital and print media- under the age of 35 posted at national and state headquarters, and cultivate them systematically. ii. In-charge General Secretaries of PYC Media Departments shall be issued circulars to supply the IYC Media Dept. with this information within one month. If there is no in-charge General Secretary, then the PYC president shall be entrusted with this responsibility until such appointment is made.iii. All national and state-level journalists in this Database shall receive free copies of our monthly magazine along with other relevant materials. They shall also be encouraged to contribute to it to secure their greater involvement & participation. A fixed sum may be paid for each contribution/article, as determined by the magazine’s editorial board.

SPOKESPERSONSc. ORGANIZATION OF SPOKESPERSONS:i. Each IYC Spokesperson shall be assigned certain number of statesii. Likewise, each PYC Spokesperson shall be assigned a certain number of districts

d. FUNCTION:i. Each spokesperson shall tour his respective states/district headquarters at regular intervals to:a. Evaluate & review the performance of spokespersons assigned to them, and take necessary actionb. Address press-conferences on vital issuesc. Interact with local journalists with the intention of establishing a personal rapport with them, and securing their feedbackd. Conduct Training Workshops of spokespersons assigned to them at the PYC and DYC levels

E. DUTIES OF SPOKESPERSONS: i. Each Spokesperson shall be assigned a particular number of journalists, with the specific target of securing a certain number of favorable stories for the Youth Congress every month. ii. These stories shall be scanned and emailed to the IYC Media Centre by the respective PYC and DYC General Secretaries in-charge of Media.

f. IYC MEDIA CENTRE DIRECTORY: The Media Centre shall publish and make available a Directory of all IYC, PYC and DYC in-charge General Secretaries and Spokespersons to the Media.

D. ACTION PLAN

• LAUNCH OF MAGAZINEo Opening of Bank Accounts in the names of “Yuva Pragiti”/ “Young March” in the State Bank of India, New Delhi by 22nd February 2009o Appointment of Circulation & Marketing Managers o Printing & Issue of subscription forms to all IYC, PYC, DYC and BYC office-bearers nationwide through IYC General Secretaries by 10th March 2009o All subscription forms to be filled & returned along with cheques/DDs made payable to the Registered Bank Accounts of “Yuva Pragiti”/ “Young March” by 30th March 2009o Compilation of Subscriber Database by Circulation Manager by 15th April 2009o Securing of Advertisements by Marketing Manager (as per minimum target) by 15th April 2009o Launch of Magazines by May 1st 2009 along with a special Commemorative Edition by Hon’ble Congress President: the number of copies to be printed shall be determined on the basis of the number of office-bearer subscribers enrolled by the March 30th deadline

• OPENING OF MEDIA CENTREo PYCs to be instructed to complete all appointments of PYC & DYC-level in-charge General Secretaries of Media & Spokespersons by 28th February 2009 (circular already issued)o Telephone numbers, postal addresses and emails of each in-charge GS and Spokesperson should be made available to the IYC Media Centre before 10th March 2009o A Directory of all IYC, PYC and DYC GSs in-charge of Media and Spokespersons to be compiled and published by 30th March 2009 o Training Workshop of all IYC, PYC & DYC spokespersons and in-charge General Secretaries of Media to be conducted between 5th-6th April 2009o Opening of Media Centre & Release of Directory on 7th April 2009 by AICC General Secretary in-charge of IYCo The principal idea of the Media Centre would be to maximize the visibility & reach of the IYC- and in particular, Shri Rahul Gandhi- among India’s Youth prior to the Lok Sabha election.Read More (आगे और पढ़ें)......